Aramaic word · H5017

נְבוּאָה

binvu'at

prophesying

'Prophecy, prophesying': the act or content of speaking as a prophet. In Biblical Aramaic it occurs only here. The Hebrew form appears in late books (Nehemiah 6:12; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 15:8). Prophecy in Israel was mainly speaking for God to the present situation: rebuke, summons, promise.

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

Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament.

What it means

prophesying

Aramaic of ne.vu.ah (נְבוּאָה "prophecy" H5016)

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 Ezra 6:14

Range of meaning

'Prophecy, prophesying': the act or content of speaking as a prophet. In Biblical Aramaic it occurs only here. The Hebrew form appears in late books (Nehemiah 6:12; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 15:8). Prophecy in Israel was mainly speaking for God to the present situation: rebuke, summons, promise. Prediction was only one part of it.

Against the English

'Prophesying' (KJV, BSB, ESV, WEB) is accurate but may be heard as foretelling the future. Some modern versions use 'preaching', which captures the exhortation but loses the claim that this was God's own word.

How it drifted

In popular use 'prophecy' has come to mean mainly prediction, especially about the end times. The prophetic messages in view here are mostly direct calls to action.

Used elsewhere in the period

Haggai 1:2–11 (rebuke: 'Is it a time for you to dwell in paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?'), 1:13 ('I am with you'), 2:4 ('Be strong… work, for I am with you'); Zechariah 4:9 ('The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation… his hands shall also complete it'). Ezra 5:1–2 says the prophets were 'with them, helping them'.

Where it appears

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 6:14 בִּנְבוּאַת֙ by [the] prophesying of

    So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia.

    Here: 'By means of the prophecy of'. The prophets' spoken messages were the driving force behind the work. Haggai and Zechariah's oracles called the people to build and encouraged them (Haggai 1–2; Zechariah 4:6–10; Ezra 5:1–2).

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