Aramaic word · H2818
חֲשַׁח
chashchin
necessity
To need, be in need of, have to. The word belongs to the vocabulary of practical necessity. Related nouns mean “what is needed” or “requirements.”
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
verb
(P'al) to need, have need
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 need, be in need of, have to. The word belongs to the vocabulary of practical necessity. Related nouns mean “what is needed” or “requirements.”
- Against the English
Most modern versions say “we have no need” or “we do not need,” which is accurate. The KJV says “we are not careful,” which in 1611 meant “we are not anxious or troubled.” That reading interprets the word through the men's state of mind. A modern reader of “careful” hears “cautious,” which is not the point at all.
- How it drifted
English “careful” once meant “full of care, worried.” It has since come to mean “cautious, attentive,” so the KJV wording now misleads.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Bible this root appears only in Imperial Aramaic: the verb here, the noun ḥashḥan (“what they need”: bulls, rams, wheat, salt) in Ezra 6:9, and ḥashḥut (“whatever else is needed”) in Ezra 7:20. Both Ezra passages come from Persian administrative letters. That suggests a word at home in official, bureaucratic Aramaic, which suits a royal hearing.
Similar words
Where it appears
Ezra · 1
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Ezra 6:9 חַשְׁחָ֡ן things needed
Whatever is needed—young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem—must be given to them daily without fail.
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 3:16 חַשְׁחִ֨ין [are] needing
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
Here: “Needing.” A present participle: “we are not in need.” They are saying the situation does not require them to argue or plead. They are not saying they refuse to speak.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.