Hebrew word · H5501

סְחִי

sechi

offscouring

A noun that occurs only here, from the root s-ḥ-h, 'to scrape off, scrape away'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

offscourings

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 Lamentations 3:45

Range of meaning

A noun that occurs only here, from the root s-ḥ-h, 'to scrape off, scrape away'. The verb appears in Ezekiel 26:4, where God says of Tyre, 'I will scrape her dust from her and make her a bare rock.' So seḥi means scrapings or sweepings: the dirt scoured off a pot or swept off a floor, worthless matter that exists only to be removed.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, YLT and NASB use 'offscouring', which is accurate but archaic. Most modern readers no longer know the word. BSB, NIV and ESV use 'scum', which keeps the contempt but switches the picture from scraped-off dirt to a film on top of liquid. Both work. 'Scum' as a modern insult for people ('the scum of the earth') roughly matches the force here.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew Bible: hapax (occurs only here). Its verbal root appears in Ezekiel 26:4. The Septuagint does not seem to have recognised the word (see textual notes). Paul's 'scum of the world, the scrapings of all things' (1 Corinthians 4:13) has been read by some as an echo of this verse. The Greek perípsēma there also means 'what is wiped off'.

Where it appears

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:45 סְחִ֧י scouring

    You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

    Here: What gets scraped off a surface and thrown away: grime, filth, sweepings. It comes first in the Hebrew for emphasis: 'Scrapings!' is what the community says it has become. The noun appears only here in the Hebrew Bible.

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