סַד

From the study of Job 13:27

Range of meaning

A wooden block or frame that held a prisoner's feet fast. The Hebrew Bible uses the word only twice: here and in Job 33:11, where Elihu quotes Job.

Against the English

Almost all English versions say 'stocks.' NIV says 'shackles,' which suggests metal chains rather than a wooden block.

How it drifted

Modern 'stocks' brings to mind the colonial or medieval village pillory: a public frame for head and hands, used to humiliate someone briefly. The Hebrew image is a prisoner held in custody by the feet.

Used elsewhere in the period

Foot-blocks for prisoners are well known in the ancient world. Jeremiah was put in a related restraint called the mahpeket (Jer 20:2–3), and Paul and Silas had their feet fastened in the xylon, a wooden block, in the inner prison (Acts 16:24). The Septuagint here says kōlyma, 'a hindrance,' and the Vulgate says nervus, a fetter or foot-stock.

From the study of Job 33:11

Range of meaning

A wooden block or frame in which a prisoner's feet were fastened. Only used in Job 13:27 and 33:11. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it with a word for a wooden fetter or block, with a possible Aramaic counterpart.

Against the English

"Stocks" (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT, ESV, NASB) is accurate. NIV's "shackles" moves from wooden stocks to metal chains: the idea of restraint survives, but the specific picture of a wooden foot-block is lost.

Used elsewhere in the period

Elsewhere the Hebrew Bible uses a different word, mahpekhet, for the stocks Jeremiah was put in (Jer 20:2–3; 29:26; compare 2 Chr 16:10, the "house of the stocks"). The Greek Old Testament (LXX) renders 33:11 with xylon, "wood" ("he put my foot in the wood"), the same word used for the stocks of Paul and Silas in Acts 16:24. The Latin Vulgate has in nervo, "in the fetter/stocks."