to whistle: to force a thin, sharp sound through the lips, either at a ruin in shock or scorn, or at someone being summoned
The word names a sound rather than a feeling. Someone forces air sharply through the lips and makes a thin, piercing noise, and the meaning comes from why they do it. The Old Testament puts that same whistle in three settings:
- a traveler passing a ruined city, who stops and whistles at what he sees
- an enemy standing over someone brought low, whistling in triumph
- a master whistling for what he wants, and it comes
The first two account for most of the occurrences. A prophet describes a city under judgment, then describes the reaction of whoever walks past: he is appalled, and he whistles. The gesture rarely stands alone, arriving alongside clapped hands, a shaken head, or a raised fist. Jeremiah goes further and turns the reaction into a title for the city, pairing this verb with a noun built from the same root (שְׁרֵקָה), so that a ruined Jerusalem becomes a thing people whistle at.
The third setting turns the sound outward as a summons. A herdsman whistles and his animals come. Isaiah takes that ordinary picture and makes it frightening, because it is God who whistles and an empire that answers, marching from the ends of the earth as readily as a swarm of bees. Zechariah then uses the same image for mercy: God whistles for his scattered people, and they come home.