Hebrew word · H5206

נִידָה

lenidah

filth

The word occurs only here. Possible derivations: (1) from nûd, 'shake, sway, wander,' which is used of shaking the head at someone in mockery or pity (Jer 18:16; Ps 44:15 Hebrew 44:15 'a shaking of the head'; Jer 48:27).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

impure, filthiness, impurity

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 Lamentations 1:8

Range of meaning

The word occurs only here. Possible derivations: (1) from nûd, 'shake, sway, wander,' which is used of shaking the head at someone in mockery or pity (Jer 18:16; Ps 44:15 Hebrew 44:15 'a shaking of the head'; Jer 48:27). That gives 'an object of head-shaking / a byword' or 'a wanderer, an outcast.' (2) A spelling variant of niddah (נִדָּה), the impure state of a menstruating woman (Lev 15:19–33). That state meant separation from contact and from holy things, and the prophets use it as a metaphor for something abhorrent (Ezek 7:19–20; 36:17; Ezra 9:11).

Against the English

BSB 'object of scorn' follows sense (1). KJV 'removed' follows the 'wander / be moved' sense. WEB 'unclean', YLT 'impure', NIV 'unclean', NASB 'an unclean thing' and ESV 'filthy' follow sense (2). NLT goes further and pictures her discarded like a filthy rag.

How it drifted

'Unclean' and especially 'filthy' sound to modern ears like dirt or moral grime. Niddah is mainly about status: a woman in that state was set apart, and contact made others impure. The prophetic metaphor does add revulsion, but the core image is a woman people avoid touching.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX eis salon egeneto ('she became a tossing / shaking'). Vulgate instabilis facta est ('she became unstable'). Both read nûd. Within the same chapter, 1:17 says 'Jerusalem has become a niddah (לְנִדָּה) among them' in the standard spelling, and 1:9 continues 'her uncleanness (ṭumʾāh) is in her skirts,' which is menstrual and purity language.

Where it appears

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 1:8 לְנִידָ֣ה <into> impurity

    Jerusalem has sinned greatly; therefore she has become an object of scorn. All who honored her now despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns away.

    Here: The word appears only here. It is read either as 'something people shake their heads at, a byword, an outcast' (from nûd, 'shake, wander') or as a spelling of niddah, 'menstrual impurity.' The sound probably calls up both pictures: she is shunned and she is untouchable.

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