עֲטִין

From the study of Job 21:24

Range of meaning

This word occurs only here in the Bible. There are three main proposals. (1) Pail, bucket, vat. This is linked to later Hebrew, where the related word maʿṭān means a vat or heap where olives are stored before pressing. (2) Resting place of livestock. This comes from the Arabic word ʿaṭan, the place near water where camels lie down after drinking. (3) A body part, such as flanks, haunches or loins. That proposal is mostly a guess from the parallel with 'his bones'.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'breasts'. ESV, WEB and NJPS have 'pails'. NASB has 'sides'. NRSV has 'loins'. NIV and BSB have 'body', and NLT drops the image altogether. These differences come from guesses about a word that occurs only once, not from the translators' theology.

How it drifted

KJV's 'breasts' probably follows older Jewish interpretation, which read the word as a body part. To a modern reader 'his breasts are full of milk' sounds odd or female, but the line is about a prosperous man's flourishing, not lactation.

Used elsewhere in the period

There is no other biblical occurrence. The later Hebrew maʿṭān (olive vat) and the Arabic ʿaṭan (camels' resting place by water) are the main comparisons. The Septuagint has ta enkata, 'his insides', and the Vulgate has viscera, 'his inner parts'. Both took it as a body part.