סָכַת

From the study of Deuteronomy 27:9

Range of meaning

This root occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning comes from related words in other languages and from early translations. Arabic sakata means 'to be silent', and the Greek and Aramaic translators read it as 'be silent' or 'pay attention'. The form here (Hiphil imperative) is a command meaning 'keep silence!' or 'be still and attend!' (BDB, HALOT). It is the silence of an audience called to attention, not the silence of having nothing to say.

Against the English

The BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV and NASB all render it as silence ('Be silent', 'Keep silence'). The KJV's 'Take heed' follows the Latin Attende and the Jewish interpretive tradition, which took the word as 'give attention'. Both are fair. 'Silent' gives the outward act and 'take heed' gives what it is for. Neither English word on its own conveys both.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint has siōpa ('be silent'). The Vulgate has attende ('pay attention'). Targum Onkelos uses an Aramaic verb meaning 'give ear'. The rabbis, faced with a word found nowhere else, played on its sounds in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot 63b). One reading was 'make yourselves into groups (kittot) and study Torah', because Torah is learned with others. Another was 'crush yourselves (kattetu) for the words of Torah'. These are puns, not meanings, but they show the word was already unusual in antiquity. Later Hebrew kept the verb in the sense 'to listen attentively', and the Academy of the Hebrew Language has adopted hesket for 'podcast'.