סָגַר

From the study of Deuteronomy 32:30

Range of meaning

In its basic form it means 'to shut, close' (a door, a gate). In the causative form used here it means 'to deliver up, surrender, hand over' a person or group into the power of another, often captives handed to an enemy. It may grow out of the idea of handing someone over into confinement.

Against the English

KJV and YLT render it literally as 'shut them up'. WEB has 'delivered them up', and BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB have 'given them up'. The modern versions catch the sense. The KJV phrase now sounds like 'silenced them'.

How it drifted

'Shut up' used to mean 'confine, enclose'. In modern English it mostly means 'be quiet'. So the KJV wording now misleads.

Used elsewhere in the period

Joshua 20:5 (not handing the manslayer over to the avenger). 1 Samuel 23:11–12 ('Will the men of Keilah surrender me?'). Amos 1:6, 9 (whole populations handed over to Edom). Obadiah 14. Psalm 31:8. Psalm 78:48, 50, 62 ('he gave his people over to the sword').

From the study of Isaiah 26:20

Range of meaning

Sāgar means to shut or close (a door, a gate, a city) and, by extension, to confine or hand someone over. With baʿad ('behind, around, on behalf of') it forms a fixed phrase: to shut a door on someone so they are enclosed inside.

Against the English

'Shut your doors behind you' (BSB, WEB, YLT) is good English. KJV's 'about thee' keeps the sense of being closed in on every side. None of the English versions can show that the same phrase appears in the Noah story.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 7:16: 'and the LORD shut him in' (wayyisgōr YHWH baʿădô), as the flood came. 2 Kings 4:4–5: the widow shuts the door behind herself and her sons while the oil is multiplied. 2 Kings 4:33: Elisha 'shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD.' Exodus 12:22–23 has the same scene in different words: on Passover night no one goes out of the door of the house until morning while the LORD passes through to strike.

From the study of 1 Samuel 26:8

Range of meaning

The basic sense of the root is 'to shut, close' (doors, gates, a city under siege). In the Piel and Hiphil stems it develops a special meaning: 'to shut someone up into another's hand', that is, to hand over or surrender a person with no way out (BDB, HALOT). The picture is confinement: penned in, cornered, delivered up like a captive.

Against the English

BSB, KJV, WEB, NASB and most modern versions have 'delivered (up)' or 'given'. That gets the result right but loses the image of a trap snapping shut. YLT's 'shut up ... into thy hand' keeps the image. Church English tends to hear 'deliver' as rescue, and here it means the opposite.

How it drifted

In older English 'deliver' meant both 'set free' and 'hand over' (as in 'deliver to the authorities'). Devotional use has made 'deliverance' mostly mean rescue, so 'God has delivered...' can sound like salvation language rather than surrender into an enemy's power.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the same narrative: Goliath is told 'today YHWH will shut you up into my hand' (17:46). Most strikingly, Saul himself had confessed to David, 'YHWH shut me up into your hand, and you did not kill me' (24:18, Hebrew 24:19). See also 2 Sam 18:28; Deut 32:30 ('unless their Rock had sold them, and YHWH had shut them up'); Josh 20:5 (not handing a manslayer over to the avenger); Amos 1:6, 9 and Obad 14 (handing refugees over to enemies); Ps 31:8 ('you have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy'). The root sgr ('shut') is common Semitic. The LXX regularly renders it with apokleiō, 'shut in'.