Hebrew word · H5138

נָזִיד

nazid

stew

A boiled dish or stew. The word probably comes from the root zyd/zwd, 'to boil up, seethe'. It is usually made from legumes and vegetables, the common food of ordinary people.

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

boiled food, soup, pottage, thing sodden or boiled

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 2 Kings 4:38

Range of meaning

A boiled dish or stew. The word probably comes from the root zyd/zwd, 'to boil up, seethe'. It is usually made from legumes and vegetables, the common food of ordinary people.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'pottage', an older English word for a thick soup. Modern versions have 'stew'. Both are accurate.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jacob's red lentil stew, for which Esau sold his birthright (Gen 25:29, 34). Haggai 2:12 lists it among foods. The Greek translation (Septuagint) of Genesis uses hepsēma, 'something boiled'.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 25:29 נָזִ֑יד cooked food

    One day, while Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the field and was famished.

  2. Genesis 25:34 וּנְזִ֣יד and cooked food of

    Then Jacob gave some bread and lentil stew to Esau, who ate and drank and then got up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

2 Kings · 3

  1. 2 Kings 4:38 נָזִ֖יד cooked food

    When Elisha returned to Gilgal, there was a famine in the land. As the sons of the prophets were sitting at his feet, he said to his attendant, “Put on the large pot and boil some stew for the sons of the prophets.”

    Here: A boiled dish, usually of legumes and vegetables: plain, filling food. It is the same word as Jacob's lentil stew (Gen 25:29, 34).

  2. 2 Kings 4:39 הַנָּזִ֖יד the cooked food

    One of them went out to the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine from which he gathered as many wild gourds as his garment could hold. Then he came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, though no one knew what they were.

  3. 2 Kings 4:40 מֵהַנָּזִ֜יד some of the cooked food

    And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat it.

Haggai · 1

  1. Haggai 2:12 הַנָּזִ֜יד <the> cooked food

    If a man carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other food, does that item become holy?’” “No,” replied the priests.

    Here: "The stew," a boiled dish of lentils or vegetables. It is the same word as Jacob's lentil stew in Genesis 25:29 and the prophets' pot in 2 Kings 4:38–40.

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