Aramaic word · H3779

כַּשְׂדַּי

khasdai

Chaldean

(1) Ethnic: the Kaldu tribes of southern Mesopotamia. (2) Dynastic and national: the Neo-Babylonian empire founded by the Chaldean Nabopolassar, so 'Chaldean' came to mean 'Babylonian'. (3) In Daniel and later Greek and Latin usage: a class of learned diviners, astrologers and omen experts.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 8 times in 7 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

Group of kas.di (כַּשְׂדִּים "Chaldea" H3778)

§ Chaldean = "clod breakers"

1) a territory in lower Mesopotamia bordering on the Persian Gulf

2) the inhabitants of Chaldea, living on the lower Euphrates and Tigris

3) those persons considered the wisest in the land (by extension)

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 Daniel 5:30

Range of meaning

(1) Ethnic: the Kaldu tribes of southern Mesopotamia. (2) Dynastic and national: the Neo-Babylonian empire founded by the Chaldean Nabopolassar, so 'Chaldean' came to mean 'Babylonian'. (3) In Daniel and later Greek and Latin usage: a class of learned diviners, astrologers and omen experts.

Against the English

KJV/BSB 'king of the Chaldeans' (plural), WEB and several modern versions 'the Chaldean king' (singular adjective), NIV/NLT 'Babylonian(s)' (a modern equivalent that drops the old name).

How it drifted

From Hellenistic times onward 'Chaldean' became a byword for astrologer (Strabo, Diodorus, Roman writers), and Daniel itself uses it that way in 2:2–10 and 5:7, 11. A modern reader who knows the word at all may hear 'magician' here, but in this verse it is a national and dynastic label.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Kaldu appear in Assyrian annals from the 9th century BC. The Hebrew Bible regularly calls the Babylonian empire 'Chaldeans' (2 Kgs 25; Jer 21:4; Hab 1:6). Theodotion's Greek renders this verse ὁ Χαλδαῖος and the Vulgate rex Chaldaeus, both singular, 'the Chaldean'.

Where it appears

Daniel · 8

  1. Daniel 2:5 לְכַשְׂדָּאֵ֔י to Chaldeans the

    The king replied to the astrologers, “My word is final: If you do not tell me the dream and its interpretation, you will be cut into pieces and your houses will be reduced to rubble.

  2. Daniel 2:10 כַשְׂדָּאֵ֤י וְכַשְׂדָּֽי׃ Chaldeans the, and Chaldean

    The astrologers answered the king, “No one on earth can do what the king requests! No king, however great and powerful, has ever asked anything like this of any magician, enchanter, or astrologer.

  3. Daniel 3:8 כַּשְׂדָּאִ֑ין Chaldean

    At this time some astrologers came forward and maliciously accused the Jews,

  4. Daniel 4:7 כַּשְׂדָּאֵ֖י Chaldeans the

    When the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners came in, I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me.

  5. Daniel 5:7 כַּשְׂדָּאֵ֖י Chaldeans the

    The king called out for the enchanters, astrologers, and diviners to be brought in, and he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this inscription and tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”

    Here: In Daniel, besides naming the people of southern Babylonia, the word names a class of learned diviners trained in Babylonian scholarly lore, especially reading the heavens. Hence BSB's 'astrologers'.

  6. Daniel 5:11 כַּשְׂדָּאִין֙ Chaldeans

    There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your father he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers, and diviners. Your own father, the king,

    Here: Here a professional class, the scholar-diviners skilled in astrology and omen lore, rather than the ethnic group. This is how Greek writers also used the word.

  7. Daniel 5:30 כַשְׂדָּאָֽה׃ פ Chaldeans the

    That very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain,

    Here: Here it is an ethnic and dynastic label: the Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) king or kingdom. It sets up the contrast with 'Darius the Mede' in the next verse, where one people's rule gives way to another's. It does not refer to the diviner class that the same word names in 5:7, 11.

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