Hebrew word · H3908

לַ֫חַשׁ

lachash

charm

A whisper or murmur. The word is used especially for the low, muttered words of a charmer or spell-caster: snake-charming (Jer 8:17; Eccl 10:11), 'skilled in charms' (Isa 3:3), and amulets or charm ornaments (Isa 3:20, plural). The related verb means to whisper (2 Sam 12:19; Ps 41:7).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) whispering, charming

1a) serpent-charming

1b) charms, amulets (worn by women)

1c) whisper (of prayer)

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 26:16

Range of meaning

A whisper or murmur. The word is used especially for the low, muttered words of a charmer or spell-caster: snake-charming (Jer 8:17; Eccl 10:11), 'skilled in charms' (Isa 3:3), and amulets or charm ornaments (Isa 3:20, plural). The related verb means to whisper (2 Sam 12:19; Ps 41:7).

Against the English

The KJV and WEB have just 'a prayer', which loses the hushed, muttered quality entirely. The BSB has 'a quiet prayer', and the ESV and NIV have 'whispered' or 'barely whisper a prayer', which are closer. The YLT's 'a whisper' is the most literal.

How it drifted

'Prayer' is a reasonable general rendering, but in English it suggests ordinary spoken or formal prayer. The Hebrew word is a faint murmur, and elsewhere a spell.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Isaiah 3:3 and 3:20 the word sits in lists of the practices and finery of Jerusalem's elite, and there it clearly means charms or incantations. Across the ancient Near East, whispered incantations were a common response to illness and danger, as Mesopotamian incantation texts show.

Similar words

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 10:11 לָ֑חַשׁ charming

    If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 3:3 לָֽחַשׁ׃ charming

    the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

  2. Isaiah 3:20 וְהַלְּחָשִֽׁים׃ and the amulets

    their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms;

  3. Isaiah 26:16 לַ֔חַשׁ a whisper

    O LORD, they sought You in their distress; when You disciplined them, they poured out a quiet prayer.

    Here: A low, muttered utterance. Elsewhere the word is used for snake-charming and magical spells. Here it is a faint, hushed prayer: either all the voice they had left under pressure, or a murmured plea that sounded like a spell.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 8:17 לָ֑חַשׁ [is] a charm

    “For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

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