Aramaic word · H5338

נְצַל

lehatzalah

to rescue

In its causative form, to snatch away, pull out or rescue. It pictures pulling someone or something out of a grip or out of danger. It is the cognate of Hebrew hiṣṣîl, the common Hebrew 'rescue' verb (e.g. Exod 3:8, 'I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians').

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Aphel) to rescue, extricate, deliver

Aramaic of na.tsal (נָצַל "to rescue" H5337)

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 Daniel 6:27

Range of meaning

In its causative form, to snatch away, pull out or rescue. It pictures pulling someone or something out of a grip or out of danger. It is the cognate of Hebrew hiṣṣîl, the common Hebrew 'rescue' verb (e.g. Exod 3:8, 'I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians').

Against the English

'Rescues' (BSB, ESV, KJV) is accurate. NIV reverses the pair and uses 'saves' for this verb, which in modern church English can suggest spiritual salvation. The verb here is concrete physical rescue.

Used elsewhere in the period

Biblical Aramaic: Dan 3:29 ('no other god is able to rescue like this'), 6:15, 6:28. The Hebrew cognate with 'from the hand of' is a fixed phrase for rescue from enemies (Gen 32:11; Exod 18:9–10; Ps 18 title).

Where it appears

Daniel · 3

  1. Daniel 3:29 לְהַצָּלָ֖ה to rescue

    Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”

    Here: 'To rescue', to snatch someone out of danger. It is a near synonym of šêzib, the verb used for 'deliver' in 3:15, 17 and 28. Here it means physical deliverance from the furnace.

  2. Daniel 6:14 לְהַצָּלוּתֵֽהּ׃ to rescue him

    As soon as the king heard this, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering Daniel, and he labored until sundown to rescue him.

  3. Daniel 6:27 וּמַצִּ֗ל and [he is] rescuing

    He delivers and rescues; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”

    Here: 'And rescuing.' The causative form of a verb meaning to pull something out of danger. Together with the first verb it repeats 6:14, where the king tried 'to deliver' and 'to rescue' Daniel and could not.

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