Hebrew word · H5534

סָכַר

vaiyisakheru

to stop

"To stop up, to close, to block". In this sense it appears only here and in Gen 8:2 ("the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed"). It is close in sound and meaning to the common sāgar, "to shut".

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

What it means

1) to shut up, stop up

1a) (Niphal) to be stopped, be shut up

1b) (Piel) to shut up, give over

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 Psalm 63:11

Range of meaning

"To stop up, to close, to block". In this sense it appears only here and in Gen 8:2 ("the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed"). It is close in sound and meaning to the common sāgar, "to shut". HALOT treats a different-looking use in Isa 19:4 ("I will hand over") as a separate word.

Against the English

KJV and ESV have "stopped", BSB "shut", WEB "silenced". "Silenced" gives the result but loses the picture of a spring or opening being physically plugged.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 8:2 is the only close parallel, and it is a vivid one: God caps the waters of the flood. The Greek Septuagint uses enephragē ("was blocked up"). Paul uses the same Greek verb in Rom 3:19, "so that every mouth may be stopped", though that is a shared image, not a quotation of this psalm. Ps 107:42 says something similar with a different verb: "all wickedness shuts its mouth".

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 8:2 וַיִּסָּֽכְרוּ֙ and they were shut up

    The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 63:11 יִ֝סָּכֵ֗ר it will be shut up

    But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by Him will exult, for the mouths of liars will be shut.

    Here: A rare verb meaning to plug or stop up. Its only other use in this sense is the flood story, where the springs of the deep "were closed" (Gen 8:2). The liars' mouths are pictured as a gushing spring that gets capped. The verb is passive and names no one doing it, but God is the one implied.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 19:4 וְסִכַּרְתִּי֙ and I will hand over

    I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

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