דֶּ֫לֶת

From the study of Psalm 141:3

Range of meaning

'Door', occurring only here. It is related to delet, the normal word for the leaf of a door or city gate, the part that swings shut. (It is a different word from dal, 'poor, weak', H1800, which is spelled the same.)

Against the English

All major English versions say 'door'. That is accurate, but it can sound like a house door, when the poetry may suggest a guarded gate.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same image appears elsewhere. Micah 7:5: 'guard the doors (pitḥê) of your mouth'. Ben Sira, a Jewish wisdom book of about 180 BC, picks it up twice: 'Who will set a guard over my mouth, and a seal of prudence on my lips?' (Sir 22:27), and 'make a door and a bolt for your mouth' (Sir 28:25).

From the study of Isaiah 45:2

Range of meaning

delet is a door or the leaf of a gate (the plural often means double doors). nǝḥûšâ is bronze or copper, the poetic equivalent of the more common nǝḥōšet. Together: "doors of bronze", meaning city gates plated or banded with bronze.

Against the English

KJV: "gates of brass". In 1611 "brass" was a general word for copper alloys. Today brass means copper with zinc, while ancient gates were bronze, copper with tin. BSB's "gates" is a fair translation of the whole structure. YLT's "two-leaved doors" keeps the doors.

How it drifted

The English word "brass" narrowed in meaning after the KJV, so "gates of brass" now suggests a different and softer metal than was meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

Herodotus (Histories 1.179) says Babylon's walls had a hundred gates, all bronze, with bronze posts and lintels. Mesopotamian royal inscriptions boast of hanging cedar doors bound with bronze. The Assyrian Balawat gates had bronze bands. Psalm 107:16 uses almost the same words: "he shattered doors of bronze and cut through bars of iron".

From the study of Isaiah 45:1

Range of meaning

Delet is a door leaf; the pair-form delatayim means double doors, the two great leaves of a city gate. Sha'ar is the gateway complex: defensive structure, market and court. Sagar means to shut or lock.

Against the English

KJV and YLT, "two leaved gates/doors", keep the pair-form. Most modern versions say only "doors" and lose the image of a fortified city entrance.

Used elsewhere in the period

Verse 2 extends the picture: "gates of bronze… bars of iron". Herodotus (1.179–180) describes Babylon's hundred bronze gates. The Nabonidus Chronicle records that in 539 BC "the army of Cyrus entered Babylon without battle." The Cyrus Cylinder says Marduk let him enter Babylon "without battle or fighting". Herodotus (1.191) and Xenophon (Cyropaedia 7.5) tell how the Persians entered by the riverbed while the city was celebrating.