Hebrew word · H3456

יָשַׁם

tesham

be desolate

To be desolate, deserted, ruined, and also to be appalled or horrified at a ruin. The same root gives the nouns for 'desolation' and 'horror' (šemāmāh, šammāh). The idea of an emptied place and the stunned reaction to it belong together.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to ruin, be desolate

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 Ezekiel 19:7

Range of meaning

To be desolate, deserted, ruined, and also to be appalled or horrified at a ruin. The same root gives the nouns for 'desolation' and 'horror' (šemāmāh, šammāh). The idea of an emptied place and the stunned reaction to it belong together.

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'was desolate' keep the ruin; BSB 'shuddered' keeps the horror. Each English choice drops half of what the word holds.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezekiel uses this root very heavily (e.g. 6:14; 12:19–20; 30:12; 33:28–29). Ezekiel 12:19 is especially close: 'her land will be desolate of its fullness' (tēšam ʾarṣāh mimmelōʾāh). Jeremiah 2:15 is a near parallel: 'young lions have roared against him... they have made his land a desolation, his cities are burned, without inhabitant.'

From the study of Genesis 47:19

Range of meaning

To be desolate or laid waste. Related to the common root šāmēm ('be appalled, devastated'). It describes land left empty of people and cultivation, often after war or judgment.

Against the English

'Desolate' (all supplied versions) is right. Modern English often uses 'desolate' for a lonely, grieving feeling, while the Hebrew means physical ruin: unworked fields going back to dust or scrub.

How it drifted

In modern English 'desolate' leans emotional. The physical sense of an abandoned waste survives mainly in literary use.

Used elsewhere in the period

Some lexicons parse the form under šāmēm instead. Either way the word belongs to the vocabulary of ruined land used throughout the prophets, as in 'the land will be desolate' (Ezek 12:19, Jer 4:27).

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 47:19 תֵשָֽׁם׃ it will be desolate

    Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Purchase us and our land in exchange for food. Then we, along with our land, will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”

    Here: 'Become waste', meaning uncultivated and empty of farmers, gone back to dust. This is the land's version of 'dying'.

Ezekiel · 3

  1. Ezekiel 6:6 תִּישָׁ֑מְנָה they will be desolate

    Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.

    Here: 'Will be left desolate.' The word carries a sense of horror: a place that makes people who see it shudder. The supplied tag marks it second person, but here it is third person feminine plural ('they'), with the high places as subject. The two forms look the same in Hebrew.

  2. Ezekiel 12:19 תֵּשַׁ֤ם it may be desolate

    Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

    Here: 'Be laid waste, deserted.' The verb is feminine and agrees with 'land'. It echoes shimmamon ('horror') just before it.

  3. Ezekiel 19:7 וַתֵּ֤שַׁם and it was desolate

    He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it shuddered at the sound of his roaring.

    Here: 'And it was desolated' (feminine, agreeing with 'land'). The root holds both ruin and stunned horror, so the land is both emptied and aghast. BSB's 'shuddered' picks up the horror; KJV/WEB 'was desolate' picks up the ruin.

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