Hebrew word · H4698
מְצִלָּה
metzilot
bell
Bells, or jingling metal discs or plates, attached to a horse's harness. The root ṣll means 'to tingle, quiver, ring' (1 Sam 3:11; 2 Kgs 21:12, 'both ears will tingle'). The related mətsiltayim means 'cymbals' (1 Chr 13:8; Ezra 3:10).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
bell
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 Zechariah 14:20
- Range of meaning
Bells, or jingling metal discs or plates, attached to a horse's harness. The root ṣll means 'to tingle, quiver, ring' (1 Sam 3:11; 2 Kgs 21:12, 'both ears will tingle'). The related mətsiltayim means 'cymbals' (1 Chr 13:8; Ezra 3:10).
- Against the English
'Bells' is a fair rendering. NLT's 'harness bells' makes the setting clear. Readers should not picture church bells or the priest's robe bells, which have a different Hebrew word (paʿămōn, Exod 28:33–35).
- Used elsewhere in the period
The word appears only here in the Bible, so the meaning comes from the root and related words. Bronze horse bells and harness ornaments are well known from Assyrian reliefs and finds across the Iron Age Near East, where they belonged to chariot and cavalry gear. The Septuagint guessed 'bridle' (chalinos), and the Vulgate followed with frenum.
Similar words
Where it appears
Zechariah · 1
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Zechariah 14:20 מְצִלּ֣וֹת [the] bells of
On that day, HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the house of the LORD will be like the sprinkling bowls before the altar.
Here: Metal bells or jingling discs hung on a horse's harness. The word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from a root meaning 'to tingle, ring' and is related to the word for cymbals. Their noise marked the horse's presence and its rank.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.