Hebrew word · H5252

נְסִבָּה

nesibah

turn

A noun from the root sbb, 'turn, go around, change direction'. It means 'a turn of affairs', 'a bringing-about', a change in how events run. The Kings parallel has the related form sibbah (1 Kings 12:15). Lexicons such as BDB and HALOT give 'turn of affairs'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

turn of affairs, a bringing about

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 Chronicles 10:15

Range of meaning

A noun from the root sbb, 'turn, go around, change direction'. It means 'a turn of affairs', 'a bringing-about', a change in how events run. The Kings parallel has the related form sibbah (1 Kings 12:15). Both forms occur only in this one sentence and its parallel, so the meaning is worked out from the root and the context. Lexicons such as BDB and HALOT give 'turn of affairs'.

Against the English

KJV has 'the cause', which suggests a reason or explanation. BSB, NIV and NASB have 'turn of events', WEB 'it was brought about', YLT 'the revolution'. 'Turn of events' is closest to the root picture. 'Cause' is not wrong, but it loses the idea of a change of direction. YLT's 'revolution' captures the turning but sounds like a modern political uprising.

How it drifted

Older English 'cause' meant 'that which brings something about', and the KJV wording reflects that. Modern readers may hear 'cause' as 'a reason or motive', or even 'a cause one supports'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb sabab is common: walking around Jericho, turning, and in the causative 'to bring about' (e.g. 'he turned the kingdom to David', 1 Chr 10:14, using the same root). The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) appears to render the noun with metastrophē, 'a turning about'.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 10:15 נְסִבָּה֙ a turn

    So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

    Here: The word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the root sbb, 'to turn, go around', and means a turn in how things go, a change in direction. Here it describes the whole course of events that split the kingdom.

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