Aramaic word · H2136

זָכוּ

zakhu

innocence

Being clean, pure or in the clear. It is the Aramaic noun from the root z-k-y / z-k-h, 'to be clean, pure.' In Biblical Aramaic it occurs only here.

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

Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

purity, innocence, innocence (in God's sight)

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 6:22

Range of meaning

Being clean, pure or in the clear. It is the Aramaic noun from the root z-k-y / z-k-h, 'to be clean, pure.' In Biblical Aramaic it occurs only here. In the Hebrew Bible the related verbs mean 'be clean, be pure' (Job 15:14; Psalm 51:4 [MT 51:6], 'blameless when you judge'; Micah 6:11, 'shall I acquit/count pure?'). In later Jewish Aramaic and Hebrew the word family becomes standard legal language: zakkay = 'acquitted, not guilty,' and zəkût = 'acquittal, a favorable verdict,' and then 'merit.'

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'innocency/innocence'; BSB 'I was found innocent'; ESV 'blameless'; YLT 'purity'; Vulgate iustitia ('righteousness'); Theodotion εὐθύτης ('uprightness'). 'Innocent' gets the legal sense right. 'Purity' gets the root right but sounds more moral or sexual to modern ears. 'Righteousness' widens it into a general virtue.

How it drifted

Modern English 'innocent' often suggests naivety or complete sinlessness. Here the word is a verdict: cleared of the charge being judged.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew zākâ/zākak: Job 15:14; 25:4; Psalm 51:4; Proverbs 20:9 ('who can say, I have made my heart clean?'); Micah 6:11. In Targum and rabbinic Aramaic, z-k-y is the normal verb for 'to be acquitted' in court, the opposite of ḥ-y-b, 'to be found guilty.' Daniel's use already leans toward this courtroom sense, because it sits with 'was found' and 'before him.'

Where it appears

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 6:22 זָכוּ֙ innocence

    My God sent His angel and shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, for I was found innocent in His sight, and I have done no wrong against you, O king.”

    Here: 'Innocence.' A word of being cleared or clean: blameless in the case being judged. It is a verdict on the charge against him, not a claim that he never sinned.

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