Hebrew word · H5084
נָדָן
nedanah
sheath
A sheath for a sword. This is the only place the word appears in the Hebrew Bible. Its Aramaic form appears in Daniel 7:15, where the body is described as the 'sheath' of the spirit ('my spirit was troubled within its sheath').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
sheath
Aramaic equivalent: nid.neh (נִדְנֵ֑ה "sheath" H5085)
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 1 Chronicles 21:27
- Range of meaning
A sheath for a sword. This is the only place the word appears in the Hebrew Bible. Its Aramaic form appears in Daniel 7:15, where the body is described as the 'sheath' of the spirit ('my spirit was troubled within its sheath').
- Against the English
All major English versions say 'sheath'. The rarity of the word is not visible in English.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Standard Hebrew lexicons (HALOT) treat it as probably a Persian loanword meaning 'receptacle'. That fits the Persian-period setting of Chronicles and of Daniel's Aramaic. Elsewhere the Hebrew Bible uses taʿar for 'sheath' (1 Sam 17:51; Ezek 21:3–5). A different word that looks the same, meaning 'gift', occurs in Ezekiel 16:33.
Similar words
Where it appears
1 Chronicles · 1
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1 Chronicles 21:27 נְדָנָֽהּ׃ sheath its
Then the LORD spoke to the angel, who put his sword back into its sheath.
Here: This word for 'sheath' appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. The usual word is taʿar. The ending is feminine ('its'), agreeing with the feminine noun 'sword'. The word is probably borrowed from Persian, which fits the late date of Chronicles.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.