זִו

From the study of 1 Kings 6:37

Range of meaning

A proper name for a month. It occurs only in 1 Kings 6:1 and 6:37. Most scholars connect it with the Aramaic word ziw, meaning "brightness, radiance, splendour", which appears in Daniel 2:31 and 4:36 for a dazzling appearance. So the name probably meant something like "(month of) brightness" or "(month of) bloom". In timing it is the second month of a year that starts in spring, roughly April–May. After the Babylonian exile Jews used the Babylonian name for this month, Iyyar.

Against the English

English versions just transliterate the name: "Ziv" in BSB, WEB, NIV and ESV, and "Zif" in KJV and YLT, a spelling that follows older Latin and Greek forms. Nothing is lost by transliterating, but readers don't learn that the name is an old seasonal name the narrator himself felt he had to explain.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ziv belongs to a set of pre-exilic Canaanite month names that appear in Kings: Ziv (6:1, 37), Bul (6:38) and Ethanim (8:2). Bul and Ethanim are found in Phoenician inscriptions. The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar of Sidon, for example, is dated "in the month of Bul". So these names come from the calendar Israel shared with its Canaanite and Phoenician neighbours. The Gezer Calendar (10th century BCE) shows the same habit of naming parts of the year by season and farm work, though it uses different terms. In 6:1 the narrator adds "that is, the second month", and in 6:38 he adds "that is, the eighth month". This suggests the old names were no longer familiar to his readers, and probably that he was copying from an older source, such as the "Book of the Acts of Solomon" mentioned in 11:41.