Aramaic word · H2957
טְרַד
terid
to chase away
Three active verbs with an unnamed plural subject: "they drive", "they feed", "they drench". In Biblical Aramaic a third-person plural with no named subject very often works as a passive ("one drives you" = "you are driven").
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
(P'al) to drive away, drive from, chase away
Aramaic of ta.rad (טָרַד "to pursue" H2956)
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
Three active verbs with an unnamed plural subject: "they drive", "they feed", "they drench". In Biblical Aramaic a third-person plural with no named subject very often works as a passive ("one drives you" = "you are driven").
- Against the English
KJV and YLT keep the literal "they shall drive thee… they shall make thee eat… they shall wet thee". BSB, WEB, NIV and ESV turn these into passives ("you will be driven… be drenched"). The passive is good idiomatic English but hides the "they", which some readers connect with the heavenly "watchers" of 4:13–17.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The same idiom appears in Dan 4:32, 5:20–21 ("they took his glory from him"), 7:12 and 7:26. Grammars of Biblical Aramaic (e.g. Rosenthal) note this impersonal plural. A similar use in the New Testament, Luke 12:20 ("this night they demand your soul"), is often read as a respectful way of referring to God's action without naming him.
- Range of meaning
'To drive away, chase out, expel.' Used of people forced out of a community or place.
- Against the English
Translations agree on 'drive (away).' The difference is the subject. KJV/YLT keep the Aramaic 'they shall drive,' while BSB/WEB turn it into a passive, 'you will be driven.'
- How it drifted
With KJV's 'they,' a modern reader may picture courtiers or palace guards putting the king out. The Aramaic plural is most naturally an indefinite subject, 'one will drive you,' which works like a passive. In this chapter the hidden agent is heaven.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Biblical Aramaic only in Daniel 4:25, 32, 33 and 5:21 (the retelling to Belshazzar). In Syriac the root means 'expel, banish.' The Hebrew root ṭrd is different in sense ('continual dripping,' Prov 19:13).
Where it appears
Daniel · 4
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Daniel 4:25 טָֽרְדִ֣ין [they will be] chasing
You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.
Here: A plural participle, "they are driving / will drive". It is the verb for chasing off an animal or an outcast. Aramaic often uses an unnamed "they" where English would use a passive ("you will be driven"), so no particular human agents need be meant.
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Daniel 4:32 טָֽרְדִ֜ין [they are] about to chase
You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.”
Here: A plural participle, 'they are driving.' The form speaks of the act as already under way or certain. The plural 'they' has no stated subject. Aramaic often uses it where English would say 'you will be driven' (so BSB), and here it leaves heaven as the hidden agent.
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Daniel 4:33 טְרִ֔יד he was chased
At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
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Daniel 5:21 טְרִ֜יד he was chased
He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.
Here: A passive verb: 'he was chased off, expelled', the way one drives off an animal or an outcast. It repeats the wording of the decree and its fulfilment in 4:25, 32–33. Who does the driving is not said.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.