Hebrew word · H2109
זוּן
meyuzanim
to feed
This word occurs only here. Most take it from zun, 'to feed' or 'nourish', so 'well-fed, sleek'. An alternative proposal links it to a root 'to weigh' (as in Arabic wazana), giving 'heavy', i.e. stallions with heavy testicles, stud animals.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to feed
1a) (Hophal) to be well fed
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 Jeremiah 5:8
- Range of meaning
This word occurs only here. Most take it from zun, 'to feed' or 'nourish', so 'well-fed, sleek'. An alternative proposal links it to a root 'to weigh' (as in Arabic wazana), giving 'heavy', i.e. stallions with heavy testicles, stud animals.
- Against the English
KJV, WEB, YLT and the modern versions all say 'fed' or 'well-fed'. None of the major versions adopts the 'heavy-testicled' proposal, though the 'stallions' of BSB, ESV and NIV catches part of it.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The root zun 'feed' is well attested in later Hebrew and Aramaic (compare Dan 4:9 Aramaic, 'all flesh was fed from it'). The Greek Septuagint does not translate the word separately and sums up the whole phrase as 'horses mad for females'. The Latin Vulgate gives 'equi amatores et emissarii', roughly 'lustful horses and studs'.
Where it appears
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 5:8 מְיֻזָּנִ֖ים well fed
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
Here: This word appears only here, and its exact meaning is uncertain. Most likely it means 'fed full', picking up God's 'I fed them to the full' in v. 7. Some scholars read it as 'heavy', meaning heavy-testicled stud horses.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.