Aramaic word · H2627
חַסִּר
chasir
lacking
Lacking, deficient, short of what is needed. Related to Hebrew chaser ('lacking', e.g. Eccl 6:2; Prov 'lacking sense') and the verb chasar ('to lack, be in want', Ps 23:1 'I shall not want'). In a weighing context it means underweight: lighter than it should be.
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
lacking, wanting, deficient
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
Lacking, deficient, short of what is needed. Related to Hebrew chaser ('lacking', e.g. Eccl 6:2; Prov 'lacking sense') and the verb chasar ('to lack, be in want', Ps 23:1 'I shall not want'). In a weighing context it means underweight: lighter than it should be.
- Against the English
KJV/WEB/ESV/NIV 'wanting' originally meant exactly 'lacking'. BSB/NASB 'deficient' and YLT 'lacking' are clearer today. None of the English words brings out the specific picture of something coming up light on a scale.
- How it drifted
The English verb 'want' first meant 'to lack' (from Old Norse vanta). The sense 'to desire' came later and is now the main meaning, so modern readers can hear 'found wanting' without catching that it means 'found short'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
This is the only occurrence of the word in Biblical Aramaic. The adjective is common in later Jewish Aramaic and Syriac for 'lacking, deficient'. Theodotion's Greek has hysterousa ('falling short'); the Vulgate has minus habens ('having less').
Where it appears
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 5:27 חַסִּֽיר׃ lacking
TEKEL means that you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.
Here: 'Lacking', meaning short or under the required amount. On a scale this is silver that comes up light: less than its stated value. It is the last word of the verdict, and it lands hard.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.