Aramaic word · H2112

זוּעַ

za'a'in

to tremble

zûaʿ: tremble or quake, physically shaken. dəḥal: fear, be afraid. As a participle it can mean "be in awe of" or "revere" (it is related to Syriac and Jewish Aramaic words for reverence or worship of God).

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament.

What it means

(Pe) to tremble

Aramaic of zu.a (זוּעַ "to tremble" H2111)

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 Daniel 6:26

Range of meaning

zûaʿ: tremble or quake, physically shaken. dəḥal: fear, be afraid. As a participle it can mean "be in awe of" or "revere" (it is related to Syriac and Jewish Aramaic words for reverence or worship of God).

Against the English

KJV/WEB/YLT keep both verbs ("tremble and fear"). BSB merges them ("tremble in fear"). NIV renders them "fear and reverence", which brings out reverence but drops the physical trembling.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same pair describes the nations under Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 5:19: "all peoples... were trembling and fearing before him" (hăwô zāyəʿîn wədāḥălîn min-qŏdāmôhî). It was the fear owed to a king who "killed whom he wished."

Where it appears

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 5:19 זָיְעִ֥ין trembling

    Because of the greatness that He bestowed on him, the people of every nation and language trembled in fear before him. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished; he exalted whom he wished and humbled whom he wished.

  2. Daniel 6:26 זָיְעִין֙ trembling

    I hereby decree that in every part of my kingdom, men are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For He is the living God, and He endures forever; His kingdom will never be destroyed, and His dominion will never end.

    Here: Physically shaking before overwhelming power. The same pair of words described how the nations trembled before Nebuchadnezzar in 5:19.

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