Hebrew word · H1825
דִּמְיֹן
dimyono
likeness
Likeness, resemblance, appearance. It comes from the common root d-m-h, 'to be like, resemble', which also gives demut, 'likeness' (Gen 1:26). This noun form appears only here in the Hebrew Bible.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
likeness
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
Likeness, resemblance, appearance. It comes from the common root d-m-h, 'to be like, resemble', which also gives demut, 'likeness' (Gen 1:26). This noun form appears only here in the Hebrew Bible.
- Against the English
KJV and BSB leave it out and simply say 'like a lion'. WEB, ESV and NASB turn it into 'He is like'. Only YLT keeps 'His likeness'. The sense is the same, but the literal wording stresses that the psalmist is describing what the enemy truly looks like.
- Used elsewhere in the period
It is used only here in the Bible. The root d-m-h is common, as in Isa 40:18 ('to whom will you liken God?') and Ps 102:6 ('I am like a desert owl'). Jerome's Latin translation from the Hebrew renders it literally as similitudo eius, 'his likeness'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 17:12 דִּמְיֹנ֗וֹ likeness his
like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
Here: 'His likeness', meaning 'what he looks like' or 'he is like'. The word appears only here in the Bible. The suffix is singular: the pack of enemies in verse 11 ('they') is now pictured as one predator.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.