Hebrew word · H5076

נְדוּד

nedudim

tossing

This noun appears only here. It comes from the root ndd: 'to flee, wander, flutter, be restless'. That root is used of birds fleeing their nest (Prov 27:8; Isa 16:2) and of exiles wandering.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

tossing (of sleeplessness)

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 Job 7:4

Range of meaning

This noun appears only here. It comes from the root ndd: 'to flee, wander, flutter, be restless'. That root is used of birds fleeing their nest (Prov 27:8; Isa 16:2) and of exiles wandering.

Against the English

'Tossings to and fro' (KJV), 'tossing' (ESV), 'toss and turn' (BSB, WEB). All of these are accurate. The plural, meaning repeated tossing, is lost when English uses a single verb.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same root describes sleep 'fleeing' a person. Jacob says 'my sleep fled from my eyes' (Gen 31:40), and on the night before Haman's fall 'the king's sleep fled' (Esth 6:1). So Hebrew used ndd for sleeplessness: sleep runs away, and the body keeps moving.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 7:4 נְדֻדִ֣ים restlessness<es>

    When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

    Here: Restless turning, from a root meaning 'flee, wander, flit'. It is plural: tossing after tossing. This noun is found only here in the Bible.

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