Aramaic word · H3961

לִשָּׁן

velishanaiya'

tongue

Tongue, and by extension a language, and the people who speak it.

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

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

What it means

1) tongue, language

1a) tongue, language

1b) people (fig.)

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 6:25

Range of meaning

Tongue, and by extension a language, and the people who speak it.

Against the English

KJV/WEB keep the triad 'peoples, nations, and languages'. BSB and NIV reduce it to 'every nation and language' or 'nations and peoples of every language'. That reads smoothly, but it blurs the fixed three-part refrain that recurs through Daniel.

Used elsewhere in the period

The triad 'peoples, nations and tongues' recurs in Daniel 3:4, 3:7, 3:29, 3:31 (Eng 4:1), 5:19 and 7:14. Persian administration sent decrees 'to every province in its own script and to every people in its own language' (Esther 1:22; 3:12; 8:9). Achaemenid royal inscriptions call the king 'king of countries containing all kinds of people'.

Where it appears

Daniel · 7

  1. Daniel 3:4 וְלִשָּׁנַיָּֽא׃ and <the> languages

    Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “O people of every nation and language, this is what you are commanded:

  2. Daniel 3:7 וְלִשָּׁנַיָּ֗א and languages the

    Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

  3. Daniel 3:29 וְלִשָּׁ֗ן and language

    Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”

    Here: 'And tongue', meaning a language group. The same three-part audience was ordered to bow to the gold statue in 3:4 and 3:7.

  4. Daniel 4:1 וְלִשָּׁנַיָּ֛א and languages the

    King Nebuchadnezzar, To the people of every nation and language who dwell in all the earth: May your prosperity be multiplied.

    Here: 'And the tongues,' meaning language communities. Babylon ruled speakers of Akkadian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Elamite, Egyptian and other languages. 'Tongues' here stands for the people who speak them.

  5. Daniel 5:19 וְלִשָּׁ֣נַיָּ֔א and languages the

    Because of the greatness that He bestowed on him, the people of every nation and language trembled in fear before him. He killed whom he wished and kept alive whom he wished; he exalted whom he wished and humbled whom he wished.

  6. Daniel 6:25 וְלִשָּׁנַיָּ֛א and languages the

    Then King Darius wrote to the people of every nation and language throughout the land: “May your prosperity abound.

    Here: 'And the tongues', meaning language groups, so in effect 'people of every language'. It reflects how many languages the Near Eastern empires ruled over.

  7. Daniel 7:14 וְלִשָּׁנַיָּ֖א and languages the

    And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

    Here: Literally 'tongues', meaning language groups. It completes the formula that Nebuchadnezzar's and Darius's heralds used for everyone in their empires (3:4; 6:25).

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