Hebrew word · H2229
זָרַם
zoremu
to flood
To pour out in a torrent, to flood. It is rare. The noun zerem, 'downpour, cloudburst, flash flood', is better known (Isa 4:6; 25:4; 28:2; 30:30; Job 24:8; Hab 3:10). The verb appears in Ps 77:17 (Eng. 77:17/18), 'the clouds poured out water'.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to pour out, pour forth in floods, flood away
1a) (Qal) to pour out, flood away
1b) (Poal) to pour forth, pour out
1b1) of God's power (fig.)
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
- Range of meaning
To pour out in a torrent, to flood. It is rare. The noun zerem, 'downpour, cloudburst, flash flood', is better known (Isa 4:6; 25:4; 28:2; 30:30; Job 24:8; Hab 3:10). The verb appears in Ps 77:17 (Eng. 77:17/18), 'the clouds poured out water'. Only here does it take a personal object: God 'floods' people.
- Against the English
The KJV has 'carriest them away as with a flood' and the NASB 'swept them away like a flood'. Both keep the flood picture. The BSB, WEB and NIV ('sweep away') keep the speed and force but lose the water. The NLT ties the sweeping to dreams. The YLT's 'inundated' is closest to the literal sense.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The flash flood (zerem) is a stock picture of sudden, overwhelming judgment in the prophets (Isa 28:2, 'like a storm of mighty overflowing waters'). The ancient Jewish readers differed. Jerome's translation from the Hebrew reads 'when you strike them' (percutiente te eos). The Septuagint seems to have read a different or damaged text.
Where it appears
Psalms · 2
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Psalm 77:17 זֹ֤רְמוּ they poured forth
The clouds poured down water; the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth.
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Psalm 90:5 זְ֭רַמְתָּם you flood them
You sweep them away in their sleep; they are like the new grass of the morning—
Here: 'You have flooded them' or 'you sweep them off in a downpour'. The verb belongs with the noun zerem, a cloudburst or flash flood. God is pictured as a sudden storm torrent carrying people away. The Hebrew past-tense form states a general truth: this is what God always does to mortals.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.