Hebrew word · H2223

זַרְזִיר

zarzir

greyhound

Zarzir occurs only here, and its exact meaning is unknown. Together with motnayim ('loins') the phrase means roughly 'the one girded or tightly built at the loins'. Some connect it with a root meaning to bind or press tight. The phrase must name something with a striking, proud walk.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) girded, girt, alert, used with mo.ten (מׇתְנַ֫יִם "loin" H4975) in Pr 30:31

1a) perhaps an extinct animal, exact meaning unknown

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 Proverbs 30:31

Range of meaning

Zarzir occurs only here, and its exact meaning is unknown. Together with motnayim ('loins') the phrase means roughly 'the one girded or tightly built at the loins'. Some connect it with a root meaning to bind or press tight. In later Hebrew (the Mishnah and Talmud), zarzir is the starling, and Arabic zarzūr is also a starling. The phrase must name something with a striking, proud walk.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'greyhound'. BSB, ESV and most modern versions: 'strutting rooster'. YLT: 'a girt one of the loins', which is literal and leaves the animal unidentified. Some scholars have suggested a war-horse. The KJV's 'greyhound' was a learned guess at a 'slim-waisted' animal, not a translation of any known ancient reading.

How it drifted

Reformation-era English translators followed a derivation of the word as 'girded/slim in the loins' and pictured a lean, fast dog. No ancient witness reads a dog. In Israel dogs were mostly scavengers and despised, so a dog would be a strange choice for a list of dignified creatures.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (Greek) has 'a rooster walking about confidently among the hens'. The Vulgate (Latin) has gallus succinctus lumbos, 'a cock girded about the loins'. The Targum (Aramaic) and Peshitta (Syriac) also read 'rooster'. In the Talmud (Bava Kamma 92b), zarzir is the starling: 'Not for nothing did the starling go to the raven, but because it is of its kind.'

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 30:31 זַרְזִ֣יר a rooster of

    a strutting rooster; a he-goat; and a king with his army around him.

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. It names the second creature with a proud walk. The ancient translations understood it as a rooster, which fits the picture of an animal leading its group. Later Hebrew used zarzir for the starling.

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