to be stunned by something that does not make sense: struck with astonishment, usually edged with alarm
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
Biblical Hebrew has a large vocabulary for fear and shock, and this verb picks out one narrow moment inside it: the mind stalling because what it is looking at does not fit. Joseph's brothers are seated at his table in exact birth order by a man who could not possibly know their ages, and the text says only that they stared at one another. Nothing has threatened them. They simply cannot account for what has happened.
The word rarely stays that calm. In the Psalms and the prophets the thing that cannot be accounted for is God's own action, and the astonishment tips into dread. The kings who come up against Zion are stunned and then run; the pillars of heaven are stunned at his rebuke; the priests and prophets are stunned on the day their world comes apart. In Psalm 48:5 the verb stands next to a word for outright panic (בָּהַל), and in Jeremiah 4:9 next to a word for being struck speechless with horror (שָׁמֵם). That drift is why English versions swing between "marvel" and "appalled" for one and the same verb.
Twice it arrives as a summons, and both times the summons is heavy. Habakkuk's hearers are told to look at the nations and be astounded, because God is doing something in their own lifetime that they would not believe if it were merely described to them. Isaiah's audience is told to astound themselves into a stupor, drunk without wine. Ecclesiastes issues the opposite instruction, telling the reader not to be astounded when the powerful grind the poor, since one official simply guards the next all the way up.
Nuances
1ato be baffled: astonished at something that does not add up, or that is too strange to be believed
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 43:33Ecc 5:8(7)*Hab 1:5 (2×)*
1bto be stunned into helplessness: shock heavy enough to bring dread, or to leave a person unable to act
The amazement it names can be plain puzzlement with nothing terrible in view, as when Joseph's brothers, seated in exact birth order by a stranger, stare at one another.Gen 43:33Psa 48:5
It is the reaction God calls for when he wants people to watch what he is about to do, issued as a command to look and be astounded.Hab 1:5Isa 29:9
Because it is a reaction and not a condition, a person can be told to stop having it: do not be amazed when officials rob the poor, since one official is watched by a higher one.Ecc 5:8
Both
Both name people struck speechless by something they cannot take in, and Jeremiah sets them side by side for one collapse of nerve: the priests appalled, the prophets astounded.Jer 4:9
Both describe onlookers staring in dismay at what they see, whether at a disfigured figure or at each other with faces on fire.Isa 52:14Isa 13:8
Both are strong enough to be used of the sky itself reacting to God, so neither is limited to ordinary human surprise.Jer 2:12Job 26:11
Only this word can describe a place rather than a person: cities, altars, and farmland emptied of people and left in ruins.Lev 26:31Ezk 6:4Jer 33:10Isa 61:4
It ties the wreckage and the reaction together in one word: a ruined town becomes the thing that shocks whoever walks past it, so the same verb covers both the ruin and the passerby.Jer 18:16Jer 19:8Jer 50:13
When it does describe a person, the shock is a grieving, silencing one that belongs with mourning rites: sitting motionless with torn clothes, or laying a hand over the mouth.Ezr 9:3Ezr 9:4Job 21:5
בָּהַלsudden panic that makes a person hurry or flee, where this word is the moment of standing still, unable to take it in
Covers plain bewilderment with no fear in it, people staring at one another because what they are seeing does not add up.Gen 43:33Ecc 5:8
Is held up as the fitting response to what God is doing, something people are actually told to feel rather than something they need rescuing from.Hab 1:5Isa 29:9
Describes those who read the times for a living being left with nothing to say, their expertise useless in front of the event.Jer 4:9
Both
Both name a person knocked off balance by a sight too big to take in, and the two sit side by side in the same verse describing the same stunned onlookers.Psa 48:5Isa 13:8
Either word can be the reaction to God's own action, whether the direct blow of his anger or the sheer scale of what he does.Psa 90:7Job 26:11
Both spread through a group at once, sweeping a crowd, an army, or a table of guests together rather than singling out one person.Exo 15:15Gen 43:33
Names the collapse of nerve itself: strength drains, the body shakes, and speech fails, so the person is not merely surprised but undone.Gen 45:3Psa 6:2Job 23:16Exo 15:15
Carries a whole second life as the word for haste: hurrying someone along, or acting in a rush, with no shock or wonder in it at all.Est 6:14Est 8:14Pro 28:22Ecc 5:2
Can be inflicted on purpose as a weapon: enemies and officials frighten people deliberately to break their will and stop them acting.Ezr 4:42Ch 32:18
Is repeatedly something God does to people in anger, so the terror is presented as an act of judgment rather than a private feeling.Psa 2:5Psa 83:15Psa 90:7
חָתַתcourage broken by fear, so a person gives way, where this word is the mind stopped rather than the nerve lost
It shows itself in a look. People turn and stare at one another, speechless, because what they have just seen does not make sense to them.Gen 43:33Isa 13:8
It can be an invitation rather than a threat, a summons to look hard at what God is doing and be floored by it.Hab 1:5Isa 29:9
It covers plain bewilderment at something that does not add up, which is why a teacher can tell his reader not to be amazed at seeing the poor cheated by officials.Ecc 5:8
It is used of creation itself reacting to God, with the pillars of heaven left staggered at his rebuke.Job 26:11
Both
Both name the moment a person's composure fails at the sight of something overwhelming, leaving soldiers and kings unable to act.1Sa 17:11Psa 48:5
Both describe experts and leaders losing their footing, so the wise, the priests and the prophets are pictured stunned when the disaster they never expected arrives.Jer 8:9Jer 4:9
This is the word for nerve giving way, and it is the one God's people are repeatedly ordered to refuse: the standing charge before a battle or a hard commission is "do not be afraid and do not be dismayed".Deu 1:21Jos 1:91Ch 22:13Jer 30:10
It reaches past feelings to actual ruin: a kingdom, an empire, a set of weapons or a row of idols can be broken by it, so the same word that names panic also names being smashed.Isa 7:8Isa 30:31Jer 50:2Jer 51:56
Because it names fear, it can be the fear a person ought to have, a proper trembling before God rather than mere collapse, as when Levi is said to stand in awe of God's name.Mal 2:5
It is the quality a fearless creature lacks: the war horse laughs at terror and is not shaken by the sword, which is a claim about courage rather than about understanding.Job 39:22
תִּמָּהוֹןthe noun from the same root, naming stupefaction as something inflicted, in Deuteronomy's list of curses and Zechariah's plague on the horses, where this word is a person's own reaction
tamah in the other biblical languages
θαυμάζωGreek“to marvel”the Greek verb for being struck with wonder, which can be admiring or even worshipful, where the Hebrew word is almost always unsettling
covers admiring wonder, the kind people feel watching Jesus heal or hearing him teach. The amazement draws the crowd toward him rather than driving them away.Mat 8:27Mat 9:33Mrk 5:20
can describe a calm, even puzzled reaction rather than a violent shock. People simply find something strange or remarkable and turn it over in their minds.Jhn 3:7Luk 11:38Gal 1:6
ἐξίστημιGreek“to amaze”the Greek verb for being knocked out of your senses by amazement, close to the heavier, dread-laden side of the Hebrew word
Its amazement often shades into stunned dismay: gazing dumbfounded to the point of reeling, dazed, or hurrying away in alarm.Psa 48:5Isa 29:9Job 26:11
Both
Both name astonishment at something extraordinary, people struck with wonder and staring at one another in bewilderment. This is the closest Hebrew counterpart to the Greek word's core sense.Gen 43:33Isa 13:8Act 2:7Mat 12:23
Extends past plain amazement to being beside oneself or out of one's mind, a loss of normal composure that can be taken for madness.Mrk 3:212Co 5:13
Can be used of one person astounding others, dazzling a crowd into amazement rather than only being amazed oneself.Act 8:9Act 8:11
תְּמַהּAramaic“wonder”the Aramaic noun from the same root, used in Daniel for the wonders God performs, so it names the astounding deed while the Hebrew word names the reaction to it
What scholars say about tamah
The standard lexica agree on the verb: BDB glosses it "be astounded, dumbfounded", HALOT "to be astonished, startled", and DCH covers the same range, with the reciprocal construction (each toward his neighbour) noted at Genesis 43:33 and Isaiah 13:8. The root is attested in Northwest Semitic in the sense of astonishment and yields the Hebrew noun תִּמָּהוֹן (Deut 28:28;Zech 12:4) and the Aramaic plural תִּמְהִין for the wonders of Daniel 4 and 6. Commentators differ chiefly on nuance rather than on sense. The doubled imperative of Habakkuk 1:5 (hithpael followed by qal) is generally read as an intensifying figure rather than two distinct actions, with the astonishment understood as horror at the announced Chaldean advance (Roberts; Andersen). At Isaiah 29:9 the preceding התמהמהו is normally derived from מהה (to delay), so only ותמהו belongs to this root; the imperatives there are widely read as a sentence of judicial stupefaction, parallel to the blindness and the drunkenness of the same verse (Wildberger). Ecclesiastes 5:7 (English 5:8) is taken as a caution against being scandalized by bureaucratic oppression rather than against inquiry (Seow).
Sources
BDB, s.v. תמהlexicon
HALOT, s.v. תמהlexicon
DCH, s.v. תמהlexicon
J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (Old Testament Library; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991)commentary
Francis I. Andersen, Habakkuk (Anchor Bible 25; New York: Doubleday, 2001)commentary
Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39 (Continental Commentaries; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002)commentary
C. L. Seow, Ecclesiastes (Anchor Bible 18C; New York: Doubleday, 1997)commentary