Hebrew word · H5405

נָשַׁת

nashatah

be dry

A rare verb, "to be dry, parched" and, by extension, "to fail or give out". It is used for river water drying up (Isaiah 19:5, in a passive form) and for warriors' strength failing (Jeremiah 51:30).

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

What it means

1) to be dry, be parched

1a) (Qal) to be dry, be parched

1b) (Niphal) to be dried up

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 Isaiah 41:17

Range of meaning

A rare verb, "to be dry, parched" and, by extension, "to fail or give out". It is used for river water drying up (Isaiah 19:5, in a passive form) and for warriors' strength failing (Jeremiah 51:30).

Against the English

Modern versions say "parched". KJV and WEB say "faileth/fails", taking the "give out" sense. Both are possible; the Hebrew holds both the physical dryness and the collapse of strength.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 19:5; Jeremiah 51:30. Compare Lamentations 4:4, where a nursing child's tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth from thirst during the siege, another picture of the tongue as the sign of extreme thirst.

From the study of Jeremiah 51:30

Range of meaning

A rare verb meaning 'to be dry, parched', and by extension 'to give out, fail'. In the Hebrew Bible it occurs only three times: Isaiah 19:5 (the waters dry up from the Nile/'sea'), Isaiah 41:17 (the poor, whose 'tongue is parched with thirst'), and here.

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'failed' and BSB 'is exhausted' give the right sense, but they lose the picture. The Hebrew does not say the strength 'ran out' in the abstract. It says it 'dried up', the way a river or a throat dries.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 19:5 and 41:17 both use it of water and thirst, so the image is clearly drying. Some lexicons (BDB, HALOT) list a connection with a similar verb for drying up water. The Latin Vulgate seems to have read the line differently ('their strength is devoured'), which suggests ancient translators also found this word unusual.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 19:5 וְנִשְּׁתוּ־ and they will be dried up

    The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.

  2. Isaiah 41:17 נָשָׁ֑תָּה it is dry

    The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

    Here: "Has dried up": a rare verb, used for waters drying (Isaiah 19:5) and for strength giving out (Jeremiah 51:30). The past form presents the dryness as already complete, so they are at the end of their strength.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 51:30 נָשְׁתָ֥ה it will be dry

    The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.

    Here: 'It has dried up.' A rare verb used elsewhere for water drying from a river and a tongue parched with thirst. Their strength has run dry like a streambed, a fitting picture for a city that lived off the Euphrates.

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