Hebrew word · H1475

גּוּמָּץ

gumatz

pit

A pit, hole or excavation in the ground. In later Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew the word (gummatsa) is used for pits and holes of various kinds.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

pit

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ecclesiastes 10:8

Range of meaning

A pit, hole or excavation in the ground. In later Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew the word (gummatsa) is used for pits and holes of various kinds.

Against the English

Every English version says "pit," which is accurate. What English cannot show is that this is an unusual, late word. The well-known 'pit' proverbs use shachat (Ps 7:15; Prov 26:27) or bor.

Used elsewhere in the period

Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is common in Aramaic (Targums, Jewish Aramaic) and in Mishnaic Hebrew, so it is one of the signs of Ecclesiastes' late Hebrew. Compare Prov 26:27 (shachat), Ps 7:15 (bor and shachat), Ps 57:6 (shichah), and Sirach 27:26, which in Greek is "whoever digs a pit will fall into it."

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 10:8 גּוּמָּ֖ץ a pit

    He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.

    Here: A pit or hole in the ground. This word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It is a late word borrowed from Aramaic, not the usual biblical words for pit (shachat, bor) found in the parallel proverbs.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.