זָרָה

Exodus 32:20 וַיִּ֙זֶר֙ and he scattered [it]

Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

Leviticus 26:33 אֱזָרֶ֣ה I will scatter

But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

Here: "I will scatter." The same root is used for winnowing, where threshed grain is tossed into the wind so the chaff blows away. Here the people are what gets thrown to the wind. God is the one who does it, speaking in the first person.

Numbers 16:37 זְרֵה־ scatter

“Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to remove the censers from the flames and to scatter the coals far away, because the censers are holy.

Ruth 3:2 זֹרֶ֛ה [will be] winnowing

Now is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been working, a relative of ours? In fact, tonight he is winnowing barley on the threshing floor.

1 Kings 14:15 וְזֵרָ֖ם and he will scatter them

For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the LORD to anger.

Here: The farmer's word for winnowing: throwing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows away. Israel will be flung abroad like chaff.

Job 18:15 יְזֹרֶ֖ה it is scattered

Fire resides in his tent; burning sulfur rains down on his dwelling.

Psalm 44:11 זֵרִיתָֽנוּ׃ you have scattered us

You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.

Here: "You have scattered us." The basic sense of the root is winnowing: tossing grain into the wind so the chaff blows away. This exact verb appears in the covenant curse "I will scatter you among the nations" (Leviticus 26:33). The completed-action form presents the scattering as something already done.

Psalm 106:27 וּ֝לְזָרוֹתָ֗ם and to scatter them

to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

Psalm 139:3 זֵרִ֑יתָ you sift

You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.

Here: "You have winnowed": the farm word for tossing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows off and the kernels fall. God has sorted through the psalmist's comings and goings the way a farmer sifts a harvest, seeing what each thing really is.

Proverbs 1:17 מְזֹרָ֣ה [is] spread out

How futile it is to spread the net where any bird can see it!

Here: A passive participle (feminine, agreeing with 'net'): 'is being spread / strewn'. The verb usually means to scatter or winnow, so it may picture the net flung out, or the net 'strewn' with scattered grain as bait.

Proverbs 15:7 יְזָ֣רוּ they scatter

The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but not so the hearts of fools.

Here: 'They scatter': a strong form of the verb, describing something done as a habit. The picture is of throwing things out widely, as a farmer tosses threshed grain into the wind. Wise speech goes out in every direction and reaches many people.

Proverbs 20:8 מְזָרֶ֖ה [is] winnowing

A king who sits on a throne to judge sifts out all evil with his eyes.

Here: 'Winnowing' is a farming image. Threshed grain was tossed into the wind so that the light chaff blew away and the good grain fell back. The form describes an ongoing action: the king keeps on separating wrong from right and driving the wrong away.

Proverbs 20:26 מְזָרֶ֣ה [is] winnowing

A wise king separates out the wicked and drives the threshing wheel over them.

Here: A participle (an '-ing' verb that works like a noun or ongoing description): 'one who winnows'. It stands first in the line for emphasis: before we even hear 'king', we hear what he does. The picture is the farmer tossing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows off. The same word is used of the judging king in 20:8.

Isaiah 30:22 תִּזְרֵם֙ you will throw away them

So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”

Here: 'You will scatter them'. This is the verb for tossing grain into the wind so the chaff blows away. The once-treasured images are flung off like chaff, and the word sets up the farming scenes of vv. 23–24.

Isaiah 30:24 זֹרֶ֥ה [someone has been] winnowing

The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.

Isaiah 41:16 תִּזְרֵם֙ you will winnow them

You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away; a gale will scatter them. But you will rejoice in the LORD; you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

Here: The farmer's word for tossing threshed grain into the air so the breeze can separate the chaff. 'You will winnow them': Israel, already pictured as a threshing sledge in v.15, now finishes the harvest job on the crushed 'mountains'.

Jeremiah 4:11 לִזְר֖וֹת to winnow

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;

Here: 'To winnow.' Tossing threshed grain into the breeze so the light chaff blows away and the heavy kernels fall back. That job needs a steady, moderate wind. This wind is not that.

Jeremiah 15:7 וָאֶזְרֵ֥ם and I have winnowed them

I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways.

Here: 'And I winnowed them.' A farmer tossing threshed grain into the wind with a fork so the breeze carries off the light stuff. God is the farmer and the people are what gets thrown in the air. The verb form is the one Hebrew normally uses to tell a sequence of past events, carrying on from the 'and I stretched out… and I destroyed' of verse 6.

Jeremiah 31:10 מְזָרֵ֤ה [the] [one who] scattered of

Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD, and proclaim it in distant coastlands: “The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock.

Here: A participle used as a title: 'the Scatterer of Israel'. The verb pictures tossing grain into the wind so it flies apart. The scattering is credited to YHWH himself, not to Assyria or Babylon.

Jeremiah 49:32 וְזֵרִתִ֥ים and I will scatter them

Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoil. I will scatter to the wind in every direction those who shave their temples; I will bring calamity on them from all sides,” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 49:36 וְזֵ֣רִתִ֔ים and I will scatter them

I will bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I will scatter them to all these winds. There will not be a nation to which Elam’s exiles will not go.

Jeremiah 51:2 וְזֵר֔וּהָ and they will winnow it

I will send strangers to Babylon to winnow her and empty her land; for they will come against her from every side in her day of disaster.

Ezekiel 5:2 תִּזְרֶ֣ה you will disperse

When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

Here: 'You shall scatter.' This is the farmer's word for tossing grain into the air so the wind blows the chaff away. The hair is flung loose, and the picture is of people blown off their land.

Ezekiel 5:10 וְזֵרִיתִ֥י and I will disperse

As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Here: A farming word: tossing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows away. It interprets the sign of v.2, where Ezekiel scatters a third of his shaved hair to the wind.

Ezekiel 5:12 אֱזָרֶ֔ה I will disperse

A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

Here: "I will scatter". God is the speaker. The verb is used for winnowing, tossing grain into the wind, and it echoes the covenant curse of Leviticus 26:33.

Ezekiel 6:5 וְזֵרִיתִי֙ and I will disperse

I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

Ezekiel 6:8 בְּהִזָּרֽוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם when are dispersed you

Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

Here: A passive form: 'in your being scattered'. The verb's basic picture is winnowing, where grain is tossed into the wind and the chaff blows away. It recalls Ezekiel's acted sign in 5:2, 12, where a third of his shaved hair is thrown to the wind.

Ezekiel 12:14 אֱזָרֶ֣ה I will disperse

And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

Ezekiel 12:15 וְזֵרִיתִ֥י and I will disperse

And they will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.

Here: A farming word: throwing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows away in all directions. It is a stronger and more vivid word than the first verb, and it picks up "to every wind" in v.14.

Ezekiel 20:23 וּלְזָר֥וֹת and to disperse

However, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.

Ezekiel 22:15 וְזֵרִיתִ֖יךְ and I will disperse you

I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.

Here: 'And I will winnow you / fling you out.' This verb is used for tossing threshed grain into the wind so the chaff blows away (Ruth 3:2; Isa 30:24). It adds the picture of a farmer's winnowing fork to the plainer verb 'scatter.' It also echoes Leviticus 26:33: 'you I will scatter among the nations.'

Ezekiel 29:12 וְֽזֵרִיתִ֖ים and I will disperse them

I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolate lands, and her cities will lie desolate for forty years among the ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.

Ezekiel 30:23 וְזֵרִיתִ֖ם and I will disperse them

I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

Ezekiel 30:26 וְזֵרִיתִ֥י and I will disperse

I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel 36:19 וַיִּזָּר֖וּ and they were dispersed

I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

Zechariah 1:19 זֵר֣וּ they scattered

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

Zechariah 1:21 זֵ֣רוּ לְזָרוֹתָֽהּ׃ ס they scattered, to scatter it

“What are these coming to do?” I asked. And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Malachi 2:3 וְזֵרִ֤יתִי and I will spread

Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.