Hebrew word · H2385

חֲזִיז

lachaziz

lightning

A rare storm word. It appears only in Job 28:26, in the nearly identical Job 38:25 ("a road for the ḥăzîz qōlôt"), and in Zechariah 10:1 ("Yahweh who makes ḥăzîzîm, and gives showers of rain"). The word's origin is uncertain.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

thunderbolt, lightning flash, lightning, storm, cloud

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 Job 28:26

Range of meaning

A rare storm word. It appears only in Job 28:26, in the nearly identical Job 38:25 ("a road for the ḥăzîz qōlôt"), and in Zechariah 10:1 ("Yahweh who makes ḥăzîzîm, and gives showers of rain"). Lexicons give "thunderbolt / lightning flash" (BDB) or "storm cloud / thunderstorm" (several modern translations of Zechariah 10:1). The word's origin is uncertain.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV: "the lightning of the thunder"; BSB/NASB: "thunderbolt"; NIV: "thunderstorm"; YLT: "brightness of the voices"; NLT: "lightning." All of these are defensible. They differ in whether they point to the flash or to the storm as a whole.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Zechariah 10:1 the ḥăzîzîm come with rain, which suggests something seen in the storm, either flashes or clouds. Hebrew Ben Sira (40:13) appears to use the same phrase, ḥăzîz qōlôt, for a crashing storm, which suggests it was a fixed poetic expression. Because the word is so rare, every rendering involves some uncertainty.

From the study of Zechariah 10:1

Range of meaning

A rare word, found only three times in the Hebrew Bible (here; Job 28:26; Job 38:25). Traditional lexicons (BDB) give 'thunderbolt, lightning flash'. Others propose 'storm cloud' or 'thunderhead', meaning the dark, flashing cloud mass of a rainstorm. In both Job passages it appears with rain and 'voices' (thunder): 'a way for the chaziz of thunder'.

Against the English

KJV has 'bright clouds', YLT 'lightnings', and BSB, ESV, NASB and WEB 'storm clouds'. NIV has 'thunderstorms'. The Greek Septuagint has phantasias, 'displays' or 'apparitions', and the Latin Vulgate 'snows'.

How it drifted

The ancient and modern disagreement shows translators unsure of a rare word, not a later change in meaning. KJV's 'bright clouds' tries to combine both ideas: clouds lit by flashes.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 28:26 and 38:25 both set the chaziz in God's ordering of rain and thunder. Ugaritic texts (from Ugarit, a Canaanite city of about 1200 BC) describe Baal 'giving his voice in the clouds' and 'flashing lightning to the earth' as signs of the rains he grants (KTU 1.4 V 6–9).

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 28:26 לַחֲזִ֥יז for [the] storm of

    when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,

    Here: "For the flash/bolt of..." A rare word, used only here, in Job 38:25 and in Zechariah 10:1. It names something in a thunderstorm, most likely the lightning bolt, though some take it as the storm cloud or the storm as a whole.

  2. Job 38:25 לַחֲזִ֥יז for [the] storm of

    Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 10:1 חֲזִיזִ֑ים thunder-clouds

    Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; the LORD makes the storm clouds, and He will give everyone showers of rain and crops in the field.

    Here: The flashes or thunderheads that come before a downpour. The word is rare and its exact sense is debated (see debates). Either way it points to the visible build-up of a rainstorm, which Canaanite religion credited to the storm-god Baal.

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