Aramaic word · H153
אֶדְרַע
be'edra'
force
ʾedrāʿ is the Aramaic word for 'arm', the same word as Hebrew zərôaʿ with an extra opening letter (Syriac has a related form). In the Bible the arm is the standard image of power, especially military power (e.g. 'with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm').
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
strong, force, arm, power
Aramaic of ze.ro.a (זְרוֹעַ "arm" H2220)
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
- Range of meaning
ʾedrāʿ is the Aramaic word for 'arm', the same word as Hebrew zərôaʿ with an extra opening letter (Syriac has a related form). In the Bible the arm is the standard image of power, especially military power (e.g. 'with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm'). ḥayil covers strength, wealth, competence and, very often, an army or armed troops.
- Against the English
KJV/ESV 'by force and power' sounds abstract, even moral or spiritual, to modern ears. WEB 'by force of arms' and NASB's similar wording bring out the military sense. BSB 'forcibly' and NIV 'by force' compress the pair into one adverb, which is accurate in sense but loses the picture of the arm.
- How it drifted
In modern English, 'power' mostly means authority or ability, not soldiers. The KJV's 'force and power' was accurate in 1611, when 'power' could mean an armed host ('the power of England'), but that sense has since faded.
- Used elsewhere in the period
ʾedrāʿ occurs only here in the Bible. ḥayil means armed force in Aramaic Daniel 3:20 ('mighty men of his army') and is common in Imperial Aramaic and Hebrew for troops. The Greek translation of Ezra (2 Esdras) appears to render the phrase with cavalry and force, and 1 Esdras 2:30 describes a military operation with horsemen. Both show that ancient readers took the phrase as armed coercion.
Where it appears
Ezra · 1
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Ezra 4:23 בְּאֶדְרָ֥ע with force
When the text of the letter from King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them.
Here: 'With arm'. This is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew zərôaʿ, 'arm'. The arm is the ancient picture of physical and military power. The word occurs only here in the Bible.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.