Hebrew word · H5504

סַחַר

sechar

profit

Trade, traffic, and the gain from trade. It is related to socher, 'merchant, trader' (Isa 23:2, 8: 'Tyre… whose merchants were princes'), from a root meaning 'go about, travel around' as traders do.

Appears 7 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) traffic, gain, profit, gain from merchandise

1a) traffic, gain from traffic

Also means: sa.char (סָ֫חַר "merchandise" H5505)

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 23:18

Range of meaning

Trade, traffic, and the gain from trade. It is related to socher, 'merchant, trader' (Isa 23:2, 8: 'Tyre… whose merchants were princes'), from a root meaning 'go about, travel around' as traders do.

Against the English

KJV 'merchandise' suggests stock or goods. BSB/NIV 'profit(s)' better fits the idea of income that can be spent on food and clothing.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 23:3 (Tyre's revenue from the grain of the Nile); Isa 45:14 (the 'sachar of Cush' coming to Israel); Prov 3:14; 31:18. Ezekiel 27 gives a long description of the Tyrian trade network.

From the study of Proverbs 31:18

Range of meaning

Goods for trade, and the profit made by trading (Isa 23:3, 18; 45:14; Prov 3:14). From a root meaning 'to go around,' used of merchants who travel from place to place.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV 'merchandise' points to the goods. BSB 'gain' and NASB 'profit' point to the earnings. NIV 'trading' points to the activity. The Hebrew covers all three.

Used elsewhere in the period

Proverbs 3:14 says of Wisdom: kî ṭôb saḥrāh mis-səḥar-kesep, 'for her profit is better than profit of silver.' Here the same three words appear again, kî ṭôb saḥrāh, now about the woman. In 31:24 she sells to the 'Canaanite,' a byword for merchant.

From the study of Proverbs 3:14

Range of meaning

From the root s-ḥ-r, 'to go around, travel about', used of merchants who travel with their goods (the participle sōḥēr means 'merchant'). The noun means (1) trade or traffic, (2) the goods traded, and (3) the gain earned by trading (BDB 'gain from merchandise'; HALOT 'profit, trade'). It is always a word from the world of commerce.

Against the English

KJV 'merchandise' (goods for sale), BSB 'more profitable', NASB/ESV 'profit/gain', WEB 'good profit… getting silver'. Most versions keep the commercial sense. Several lose the fact that the same word appears twice ('her trade … than silver's trade'). That repetition is what makes the comparison: one business set against another.

How it drifted

In KJV English, 'merchandise' could mean the activity of trading. Today it means goods on a shelf, so the KJV now suggests that wisdom is a product rather than a trade that pays.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used of Tyre's sea trade in Isa 23:3, 18 and of the 'merchandise of Cush' in Isa 45:14. The exact phrase ṭôv saḥrāh, 'her trading is good', comes back in Prov 31:18 for the capable wife who 'sees that her trading is profitable'. This is one of several links between Lady Wisdom in chapters 1–9 and the woman of strength in chapter 31. Compare Gen 23:16, 'silver current with the merchant (sōḥēr)'.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 3

  1. Proverbs 3:14 סַ֭חְרָהּ מִסְּחַר־ profit her, more than [the] profit of

    for she is more profitable than silver, and her gain is better than fine gold.

    Here: 'Her trade' or 'her trading profit'. The noun comes from the travelling merchant's business, and 'her' is wisdom (feminine in Hebrew, and soon pictured as a woman). It can mean the profit wisdom brings in, or the profit of dealing in wisdom. The two shade into each other.

  2. Proverbs 31:18 סַחְרָ֑הּ profit her

    She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night.

    Here: 'Her trading' or 'her trade-gain': the goods she deals in and what they earn. The word belongs to commerce (the related sōḥēr is a travelling merchant), so she is shown as a businesswoman, not only a homemaker. The exact same form, saḥrāh, is used of Wisdom's 'profit' in Proverbs 3:14.

Isaiah · 4

  1. Isaiah 23:3 סְחַ֥ר [the] traffic of

    On the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre; she was the merchant of the nations.

  2. Isaiah 23:18 סַחְרָ֜הּ סַחְרָ֔הּ profit its

    Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.

    Here: The gain that comes from trading: the merchant's income, not the goods themselves. 'Her' is Tyre, pictured as a woman, as cities usually are in Hebrew.

  3. Isaiah 45:14 וּֽסְחַר־ and [the] traffic of

    This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’”

    Here: What trading brings in: merchandise and commercial gain. Cush controlled the routes that carried gold, ivory, ebony and exotic goods up the Nile.

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