Hebrew word · H2878

טִבְחָה

tivchah

slaughtered

Slaughter, butchering; also meat that has been slaughtered. From the root טבח, "to slaughter (for food), to butcher". Related words: טֶבַח (slaughter, a slaughtered meal), טַבָּח (cook or butcher, and as a title the royal guard, Genesis 37:36; 2 Kings 25:8).

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

What it means

slaughtered meat, a slaughter, flesh, meat, thing slaughtered

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 Psalm 44:22

Range of meaning

Slaughter, butchering; also meat that has been slaughtered. From the root טבח, "to slaughter (for food), to butcher". Related words: טֶבַח (slaughter, a slaughtered meal), טַבָּח (cook or butcher, and as a title the royal guard, Genesis 37:36; 2 Kings 25:8).

Against the English

"For the slaughter" (KJV, WEB), "to be slaughtered" (BSB, NIV, ESV), "of the slaughter" (YLT). These are accurate, but modern readers often hear "sacrificial lamb".

How it drifted

Christian readers tend to merge this line with Isaiah 53:7 ("like a lamb led to the slaughter", which uses the related word טֶבַח) and with the "Lamb of God". That brings in an idea of altar sacrifice. The Hebrew word belongs to the kitchen and the butcher, not the temple.

Used elsewhere in the period

Only three occurrences: 1 Samuel 25:11 (Nabal's "meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers"), Jeremiah 12:3, and here. The Septuagint uses σφαγή, "slaughter".

Where it appears

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 25:11 טִבְחָתִ֔י slaughter my

    Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give them to these men whose origin I do not know?”

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 44:22 טִבְחָֽה׃ slaughter

    Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

    Here: A rare word for butchering animals for meat. Elsewhere it means the meat itself (1 Samuel 25:11). The picture is the butcher's yard, not the altar: animals kept to be killed and eaten.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 12:3 לְטִבְחָ֔ה to slaughter

    But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.

    Here: "For butchering": slaughtering animals for meat. The same phrase appears in Ps 44:22 ("we are counted as sheep for the slaughter").

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