Hebrew word · H2158

זָמִיר

zemir

song

Song, especially music sung and played. It comes from zāmar, "to make music, sing praise," a verb often used alongside instruments such as the lyre and harp (Ps 33:2; 98:5). Related nouns: mizmôr ("psalm," in psalm headings) and zimrāh ("melody, music").

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

song, psalm

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 95:2

Range of meaning

Song, especially music sung and played. It comes from zāmar, "to make music, sing praise," a verb often used alongside instruments such as the lyre and harp (Ps 33:2; 98:5). Related nouns: mizmôr ("psalm," in psalm headings) and zimrāh ("melody, music").

Against the English

KJV and NASB "psalms" are accurate, since the word is related to the psalm-title term. BSB "in song" and ESV "songs of praise" are also fine. WEB "songs" is plain. Nothing here really misleads.

Used elsewhere in the period

2 Sam 23:1 calls David "the sweet one of Israel's zəmirôt" ("sweet psalmist of Israel"); Job 35:10 speaks of God who "gives songs in the night"; Isa 24:16 has "from the ends of the earth we hear zəmirôt." The LXX uses psalmois and the Vulgate in psalmis.

From the study of Job 35:10

Range of meaning

From the root zmr, 'to sing, to make music, to play an instrument' (the source of mizmor, 'psalm'). Zamir means a song, usually a song of praise or celebration (2 Sam 23:1, 'the sweet psalmist of Israel'; Isa 25:5; Ps 95:2; 119:54). There is also a second Hebrew root zmr, related to a Ugaritic and Arabic word for strength or protection. Many scholars think it lies behind the related word zimrah in Exod 15:2 ('my strength and my zimrat'), which may mean 'my might' or 'my protection' rather than 'my song'.

Against the English

English versions almost all say 'songs'. That is a defensible rendering, but it leaves out that a minority reading takes the word as 'strength' or 'protection', as in 'who gives strength in the night'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Songs and praise at night are a known biblical theme: 'by night his song is with me' (Ps 42:8); 'I remember my song in the night' (Ps 77:6); 'at midnight I rise to praise you' (Ps 119:62); 'you shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept' (Isa 30:29). The Greek Septuagint translates here 'who appoints the night watches' (phylakas nykterinas). Its translator may have connected the word with guarding, or simply paraphrased a difficult line.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 23:1 זְמִר֥וֹת [the] songs of

    These are the last words of David: “The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man raised on high, the one anointed by the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:

    Here: "Songs of", meaning songs sung with instruments, from a root used for making music. Some scholars instead connect it to a homonym meaning "strength, protection" (compare Exod 15:2).

Job · 1

  1. Job 35:10 זְמִר֣וֹת songs

    But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,

    Here: Songs, especially songs of praise, often sung to instruments. Some scholars, and the Greek translation, hear a different meaning ('strength/protection' or 'night watches'). The most common reading is that God turns the night into an occasion for song.

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 95:2 בִּ֝זְמִר֗וֹת with songs

    Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him in song.

    Here: "With songs": music made with voice and probably instruments, from the same root as mizmôr, the word in psalm titles. It mirrors "with thanksgiving" in the first line.

  2. Psalm 119:54 זְ֭מִרוֹת songs

    Your statutes are songs to me in the house of my pilgrimage.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 24:16 זְמִרֹ֤ת songs

    From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.

    Here: Songs of praise, usually sung with music. It picks up the jubilant voices of vv. 14–15, where people from west and east celebrate the LORD's majesty.

  2. Isaiah 25:5 זְמִ֥יר [the] song of

    like heat in a dry land. You subdue the uproar of foreigners. As the shade of a cloud cools the heat, so the song of the ruthless is silenced.

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