Hebrew word · H1747

דּוּמִיָּה

dumiyah

silence

Silence, stillness, quiet calm. It comes from the root d-m-m, 'to be still, silent, motionless,' which is used of people falling silent (Lev 10:3), the sun standing still (Josh 10:12–13) and someone stunned into silence. The noun dûmiyyāh is rare.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

silence, still, repose, still waiting

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 Psalm 22:2

Range of meaning

Silence, stillness, quiet calm. It comes from the root d-m-m, 'to be still, silent, motionless,' which is used of people falling silent (Lev 10:3), the sun standing still (Josh 10:12–13) and someone stunned into silence. The noun dûmiyyāh is rare. It appears only a few times, all in the Psalms: 22:2 (Hebrew 22:3); 39:2 (Hebrew 39:3), 'I was mute with silence'; 62:1 (Hebrew 62:2), 'my soul is silence/stillness toward God,' meaning calm, trusting waiting; and 65:1 (Hebrew 65:2), 'to you silence is praise' (the meaning there is debated).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, YLT: 'am not silent' / 'no silence to me,' which keeps the word's basic meaning and makes the speaker the one who cannot stop crying. BSB, ESV, NIV, NASB: 'no rest.' NLT: 'no relief.' These read the stillness as respite that the sufferer never gets. Both are fair readings of the same word. 'Rest' moves toward the result (relief), and 'silent' stays with the literal sense (no hush).

How it drifted

'Rest' is not wrong, but English readers may hear 'sleep' or 'relaxation' only. The Hebrew picture is of a silence or calm that never arrives: the cries never stop, and the inner turmoil never settles.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 62:1, 5 (Hebrew 62:2, 6) uses the same root for the calm, quiet trust of a soul waiting on God. That is exactly what the speaker of Psalm 22 cannot reach. The Septuagint (Greek translation) has 'and not for folly to me' here, which suggests the translators found the word difficult. Jerome's translation from the Hebrew has 'et non est silentium mihi,' 'and there is no silence for me' (per BDB, HALOT s.v. דּוּמִיָּה).

From the study of Psalm 62:1

Range of meaning

Silence or stillness. It comes from the root d-m-m, 'to be silent, still, motionless' (used of the sun 'standing still' in Joshua 10:12–13, and of people struck dumb or waiting quietly, e.g. Lamentations 3:26–28, Psalm 37:7). The noun appears only four times: Psalm 22:2 (Hebrew v. 3; 'I have no silence/rest' by night), Psalm 39:2 (Hebrew v. 3; 'I was mute with silence'), Psalm 62:1 (Hebrew v. 2) and Psalm 65:1 (Hebrew v. 2; 'to you silence is praise', which is debated). The silence it describes is not calm emptiness. It is a person who has stopped speaking, arguing or acting, and is holding still and waiting.

Against the English

BSB 'finds rest', WEB 'rests' and NIV 'finds rest' stress the result, a settled calm. KJV 'waiteth' and NASB/ESV 'waits in silence' keep the waiting and expectancy. Only the renderings that include 'silence' keep the sound-picture: a mouth that has stopped. 'Rest' is not wrong, because stillness is restful, but it makes the line about how the psalmist feels rather than what he is doing: holding his tongue and waiting for God.

How it drifted

English 'rest' now mostly suggests relaxation or relief from stress. The psalm's word is about falling silent: no more protest, self-defence or plotting, while the danger is still there.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 39:2 uses the same noun for the speaker forcing himself to keep quiet in front of the wicked. Lamentations 3:26 uses the related form dumam: 'It is good to wait silently for the salvation of YHWH', which closely matches this verse, joining silence and yeshu'ah. The Septuagint did not read it as silence. It rendered it 'shall be subject', as if silence meant submitting.

From the study of Psalm 65:1

Range of meaning

Silence, stillness, quiet. In the Psalms it describes a person going quiet before God: either silent waiting with trust, or silence that comes from distress. It comes from a root (d-m-m / d-w-m) meaning to be still, to stop moving, to fall silent (compare Josh 10:12–13, where the sun 'stood still').

Against the English

KJV/BSB/WEB 'Praise waiteth/awaits' keep the idea of stillness by turning silence into waiting. ESV/NRSV 'praise is due to you' follow the Greek reading 'fitting' and drop 'silence'. YLT and the 1995 NASB keep 'silence' itself. So most readers never see the word 'silence' at all.

How it drifted

Less a drift than a translation choice. The phrase 'silence is praise' is odd in Hebrew, so translators either smoothed it ('waits', which is an old sense of the root) or took the ancient Greek reading ('befits'). Both leave the reader unable to tell that the Hebrew says 'silence'.

Used elsewhere in the period

It appears only four times. Ps 22:2 (English 22:2): 'by night, and there is no dumiyyah for me', meaning no rest or quiet. Ps 39:2: 'I was mute with silence'. Ps 62:1: 'Truly toward God my soul is silence; from him is my salvation', the closest match to our verse, a still, trusting waiting on God. The Septuagint reads Ps 65:2 as prepei ('it is fitting'). Jerome's Latin translation made directly from the Hebrew kept the 'silence' sense ('silent praise'). The Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 18a) quotes the verse as 'for you, silence is praise' to teach that heaping up words of praise for God falls short and that restraint honours him more.

Where it appears

Psalms · 4

  1. Psalm 22:2 דֽוּמִיָּ֥ה repose

    I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest.

    Here: From a root meaning 'be still, be silent.' The phrase 'no stillness for me' can mean the speaker never stops crying out, or that he never gets any quiet or relief. Both meanings may be in play: his crying never stops because his trouble never stops.

  2. Psalm 39:2 ד֭וּמִיָּה silence

    I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

  3. Psalm 62:1 דּֽוּמִיָּ֣ה silence

    For the choirmaster. According to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. In God alone my soul finds rest; my salvation comes from Him.

    Here: A noun, 'silence' or 'stillness'. The poet does not say the soul is quiet. He says, literally, that his soul is silence: it has stopped protesting and scheming and simply waits. In v. 5 the same idea comes back as a command to himself: 'be silent, my soul'.

  4. Psalm 65:1 דֻֽמִיָּ֬ה silence

    For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song. Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion; to You our vows will be fulfilled.

    Here: The hardest word in the verse. In the standard Hebrew text it means silence: the hushed, still waiting of a worshipper before God, the same word as in Ps 62:1 ('my soul is silence toward God'). The ancient Greek translators read it as 'is fitting'.

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