Hebrew word · H391
אַכְזָב
'akhzav
deceptive
An adjective or noun from the root k-z-b, 'to lie, to be false, to disappoint'. In a landscape it means a stream that 'lies': a wadi (a seasonal stream bed) that floods in winter and is empty in summer. The root also means plain lying in speech (kazav, 'a lie', e.g. Psalm 4:2).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
deceitful, treacherous, deception, lie, deceptive, disappointing
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 Jeremiah 15:18
- Range of meaning
An adjective or noun from the root k-z-b, 'to lie, to be false, to disappoint'. In a landscape it means a stream that 'lies': a wadi (a seasonal stream bed) that floods in winter and is empty in summer. The root also means plain lying in speech (kazav, 'a lie', e.g. Psalm 4:2).
- Against the English
KJV 'as a liar' keeps the root but loses the stream picture. WEB, ESV and NIV have 'deceitful/deceptive brook', which is accurate. BSB 'a mirage… water that is not there' changes the picture: a mirage never held any water, while an 'akhzav did once run with water and then failed.
- How it drifted
English 'liar' now points to a person's moral dishonesty, and 'mirage' to an optical illusion. Neither carries the farmer's or traveller's experience of a stream that used to be reliable and dried up just when it was needed.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Micah 1:14 puns on the town name Achzib: 'the houses of Achzib will be an ʾakhzav to the kings of Israel', meaning a place that lets you down. Job 6:15–20 develops the same image at length: friends who are 'treacherous as a wadi', whose waters vanish in the heat, so the caravans of Tema arrive and are 'ashamed'. HALOT and BDB both give 'deceptive (brook)' as the sense.
- Range of meaning
An adjective or noun from kazav, 'to lie, to fail, to disappoint'. It means 'deceptive, lying', and specifically a wadi (a seasonal stream) that dries up in summer and fails the traveller who counted on it. It occurs only twice: Jeremiah 15:18 ('like a deceitful brook, waters that fail') and here. The verb is used of water that 'fails' in Isaiah 58:11.
- Against the English
KJV and YLT say 'a lie' or 'a lying thing', which to modern ears suggests a spoken falsehood. BSB 'prove deceptive', WEB and ESV 'a deceitful thing', and NIV and NASB 'deceptive' or 'deception' are closer. None of them conveys the dried-up stream.
- How it drifted
English 'lie' has narrowed to false speech. The Hebrew word is about something that fails you when you depend on it.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Jeremiah 15:18. The related word kazav ('lie, falsehood') is common. Compare Job 6:15-20, where friends are compared to wadis that vanish in the heat.
Where it appears
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 15:18 אַכְזָ֔ב a deceitful thing
Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.
Here: From the root k-z-b, 'to lie, to fail'. It is the word for a seasonal stream bed that runs in the rains but is dry when a thirsty traveller arrives. It was a real stream that let you down, not an optical illusion.
Micah · 1
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Micah 1:14 לְאַכְזָ֔ב [will become] <into> a deceitful thing
Therefore, send farewell gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib will prove deceptive to the kings of Israel.
Here: 'Into an akhzav'. The word means a deceiving thing, used especially of a desert streambed that promises water and then runs dry (Jeremiah 15:18). Achzib 'becomes an akhzav': the town's name turns into its fate.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.