Hebrew word · H5808
עִזּוּז
'izuz
mighty
From the root ʿzz, "be strong." Either an adjective, "strong, mighty" (so a mighty one, a warrior), or a noun, "might, strength" (so a powerful force). It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
powerful, mighty
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 43:17
- Range of meaning
From the root ʿzz, "be strong." Either an adjective, "strong, mighty" (so a mighty one, a warrior), or a noun, "might, strength" (so a powerful force). It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible.
- Against the English
KJV "the power"; NASB and WEB "the mighty man"; ESV "warrior"; BSB "warriors"; NIV "reinforcements"; YLT "a force, even a strong one." NIV's "reinforcements" is a guess from context, not the plain sense of the word.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Psalm 24:8: "Who is this King of glory? The LORD, strong (ʿizzûz) and mighty." The related word ʿazzîm, "mighty (waters)," appears in the verse just before (43:16). The Septuagint merges the pair into ochlon ischyron, "a strong host."
- Range of meaning
Strong, mighty, powerful. From ʿzz, 'to be strong, prevail', the same root as ʿoz, 'strength', used often of God's strength and of the ark in Psalm 132:8 ('the ark of your strength'). It appears only twice in the Bible.
- Against the English
'Strong' is accurate. The word's rarity, and its link to ʿoz, the strength the ark represented, do not come through in English.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Isaiah 43:17 is the only other occurrence: 'who brings out chariot and horse, army and ʿizzuz (mighty force)', in a passage recalling Yahweh's victory at the sea. Psalm 78:61 calls the captured ark 'his strength (ʿuzzo)'. Psalm 132:8 has 'you and the ark of your strength'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 24:8 עִזּ֣וּז strong
Who is this King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Here: A rare word from the root ʿzz, 'to be strong, prevail'. It means mighty or forceful. Its only other use is Isaiah 43:17, where it stands beside 'army' for a warrior force. Here it describes the power that wins.
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 43:17 וְעִזּ֑וּז and a strong [one]
who brings out the chariots and horses, the armies and warriors together, to lie down, never to rise again; to be extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
Here: A rare word, found only here and in Psalm 24:8, where it describes the LORD ("the LORD, strong and mighty"). It can be read as "and the strong one" (warrior) or "and might" (a powerful force). Either way it names the very strength that is about to fail.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.