Hebrew word · H2894
טֵאטֵא
vetetetiha
to sweep
"To sweep" and "a broom". Both words occur only here in the Bible. The verb is formed by doubling its root sound, which suggests repeated, back-and-forth action: sweeping and sweeping.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Pilpel) to sweep, sweep away
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 Isaiah 14:23
- Range of meaning
"To sweep" and "a broom". Both words occur only here in the Bible. The verb is formed by doubling its root sound, which suggests repeated, back-and-forth action: sweeping and sweeping.
- Against the English
"Broom" and "sweep" are accurate. KJV "besom" is just an old word for a twig broom. YLT "daubed it with the mire" is a different and less likely interpretation (see textual notes).
- Used elsewhere in the period
Because the words were so rare, later readers argued about them. The Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 26b; Megillah 18a) tells how the sages did not know what this phrase meant until they heard Rabbi Judah the Prince's maidservant tell a companion, "Take the mat'ate' and sweep (ta'te') the house." The root lived on in Aramaic and later Hebrew as everyday words for sweeping. The Greek Septuagint, by contrast, renders the line as "a pit of mud."
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 14:23 וְטֵֽאטֵאתִ֙יהָ֙ and I will sweep away it
“I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
Here: "And I will sweep her clean away." The verb is built by doubling its own sound (te'-te'), which imitates the swish of a broom over and over. This is its only use in the Bible.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.