Hebrew word · H5187

נָטִיל

netilei

laden

nāṭîl appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from nāṭal, 'to lift, bear, lay upon' (Isa 40:15 'he lifts up the islands like fine dust'; Lam 3:28 'when he has laid it on him'; Aramaic 'to lift'). The form describes someone loaded with something or someone who lifts it.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

laden

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 Zephaniah 1:11

Range of meaning

nāṭîl appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from nāṭal, 'to lift, bear, lay upon' (Isa 40:15 'he lifts up the islands like fine dust'; Lam 3:28 'when he has laid it on him'; Aramaic 'to lift'). The form describes someone loaded with something or someone who lifts it. kesep is 'silver', and therefore 'money'.

Against the English

KJV 'bear silver', WEB 'loaded with silver', YLT 'bearing silver', BSB, ESV and NASB 'weigh out silver', NIV 'trade with silver'. 'Laden' is closest to the form. 'Weigh out' reads it as lifting silver onto the scale pan. Both point to the money-handling class.

How it drifted

No real drift. Modern readers may picture coins, but Judah under Josiah had no coined money. Silver changed hands by weight.

Used elsewhere in the period

Weighing silver in payment: Gen 23:16; Jer 32:9–10 (Jeremiah weighs out seventeen shekels on scales). Inscribed stone shekel weights from late-monarchy Judah have been found in excavations in Jerusalem and elsewhere. The Septuagint renders 'those lifted up (exalted) by silver', and the Vulgate 'involuti argento', 'wrapped up in silver'.

Where it appears

Zephaniah · 1

  1. Zephaniah 1:11 נְטִ֥ילֵי [the] weighers of

    Wail, O dwellers of the Hollow, for all your merchants will be silenced; all who weigh out silver will be cut off.

    Here: From a root meaning 'lift, carry, weigh'. It describes people loaded down with silver, or people who lift silver onto the scales to weigh it out. Either way they are the money-handlers.

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