Hebrew word · H1509

גְּזֵרָה

gezerah

isolation

As a word for land it occurs only here in the Bible. The root g-z-r means 'cut, divide, cut off' (1 Kgs 3:25, cutting the child in two; Isa 53:8, 'cut off from the land of the living'; Ps 88:5, 'cut off from your hand'; Lam 3:54, 'I am cut off'). Lexicons offer 'separation' (BDB), 'cut off, i.e.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a separation, a separate place

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 Leviticus 16:22

Range of meaning

As a word for land it occurs only here in the Bible. The root g-z-r means 'cut, divide, cut off' (1 Kgs 3:25, cutting the child in two; Isa 53:8, 'cut off from the land of the living'; Ps 88:5, 'cut off from your hand'; Lam 3:54, 'I am cut off'). So 'a land of gəzērâ' = a cut-off region, severed from settled, ordered life. Lexicons offer 'separation' (BDB), 'cut off, i.e. inaccessible' or 'barren' (HALOT discusses both).

Against the English

'Solitary place' (BSB), 'solitary land' (WEB, NASB) and 'remote area' (ESV) sound like a quiet, distant spot. KJV 'a land not inhabited' follows ancient Jewish interpretation. YLT 'land of separation' and NJPS 'inaccessible region' keep the root idea best. The Hebrew carries a sense of severance and no return, which 'solitary' softens.

How it drifted

Translators have to guess at a word that appears only once. 'Solitary' and 'remote' are reasonable guesses, but they lose the 'cut' imagery that links this word to death and exclusion elsewhere.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX has εἰς γῆν ἄβατον, 'to an untrodden/impassable land'. The Targums take it as an uninhabited land. The Mishnah (Yoma 6) worries that the goat might come back to Jerusalem, and describes it being taken about twelve miles to a cliff. That shows how seriously 'no return' was taken by the Second Temple period.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 16:22 גְּזֵרָ֑ה infertile

    The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness.

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. It comes from the root 'to cut', so 'a land of cutting-off' means a region severed from the inhabited world, from which nothing returns. Some take it as 'barren'. See the studies and debates below.

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