Hebrew word · H1827

דְּמָמָה

demamah

silence

Stillness, silence, hush, a quiet with no motion. From the root dmm, 'to be still, be silent, stand motionless' (as in Joshua 10:12–13, where the sun 'stood still'). It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

whisper, calm

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 107:29

Range of meaning

Stillness, silence, hush, a quiet with no motion. From the root dmm, 'to be still, be silent, stand motionless' (as in Joshua 10:12–13, where the sun 'stood still'). It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT have 'a calm.' BSB, NIV and NLT have 'a whisper.' ESV and NASB rephrase it as the storm 'being still.' 'Calm' and 'stillness' are closest. 'Whisper' suggests a faint sound is left over, but the word is about the absence of sound and motion.

How it drifted

'Whisper' probably reflects the famous phrase in 1 Kings 19:12 (qôl dəmāmāh daqqāh, traditionally 'still small voice'). There the word 'voice' (qôl) supplies the idea of sound. In Psalm 107:29 there is no 'voice,' only the hush.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 19:12: after wind, earthquake and fire comes 'a sound of thin silence.' Job 4:16: 'silence, and then I heard a voice.' The verb dmm is used in Psalm 4:4 and 37:7 ('be still / be silent before the LORD').

From the study of 1 Kings 19:12

Range of meaning

From the root d-m-m, 'to be still, silent, motionless.' The root describes the sun 'standing still' (Josh 10:12), Aaron's stunned silence (Lev 10:3) and the command to 'be still' (Ps 4:4). The noun itself occurs only three times: Ps 107:29 (God 'made the storm a demamah,' a calm), Job 4:16 ('demamah, and I heard a voice') and here.

Against the English

KJV 'still' (in older English, 'quiet, hushed') is accurate. NIV, ESV and NLT turn the phrase into a 'whisper,' and NASB into a 'gentle blowing,' which turns silence into a faint sound. NRSV keeps the paradox: 'sheer silence.'

How it drifted

Translators following the Greek and Latin versions read it as a breeze. Popular use later turned it into a soft inner voice.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 4:15–16 is the closest parallel. A spirit 'passes' (ḥalaf) before Eliphaz, he cannot make out its form, and there is 'demamah, and a voice I heard.' As here, silence comes just before the words. Psalm 107:29 shows the noun can mean the calm that follows a storm. One scholar (J. Lust, 1975) linked it to an Akkadian verb meaning 'to moan, wail' and proposed 'a roaring sound,' but few have followed him.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 19:12 דְּמָמָ֥ה a whisper

    After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice.

    Here: 'Silence' or 'stillness.' Elsewhere it is the calm after a storm is stilled (Ps 107:29) and the hush before a voice speaks in a night vision (Job 4:16). Putting 'sound' and 'silence' together makes a deliberate paradox. The supplied context gloss 'whisper' is an interpretation; the word itself means silence.

Job · 1

  1. Job 4:16 דְּמָמָ֖ה a whisper

    It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form loomed before my eyes, and I heard a whispering voice:

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 107:29 לִדְמָמָ֑ה into a calm

    He calmed the storm to a whisper, and the waves of the sea were hushed.

    Here: 'Into a hush.' Demāmāh is dead stillness: no wind and no noise. It is a rare word, found elsewhere only in 1 Kings 19:12 (Elijah's 'sound of thin silence') and Job 4:16. The roaring gale is not just weakened. It is turned into its opposite.

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