Hebrew word · H6101
עָצֵל
te'atzelu
be sluggish
Be sluggish, slow, hesitant. This verse is the only place the root appears as a verb. Related words: ‘āṣēl 'sluggard' (14 times in Proverbs), ‘aṣlāh 'laziness' (Proverbs 19:15), ‘aṣlût (Proverbs 31:27), and the dual ‘ăṣaltayim (Ecclesiastes 10:18).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Niphal) to be sluggish
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
- Range of meaning
Be sluggish, slow, hesitant. This verse is the only place the root appears as a verb. Related words: ‘āṣēl 'sluggard' (14 times in Proverbs), ‘aṣlāh 'laziness' (Proverbs 19:15), ‘aṣlût (Proverbs 31:27), and the dual ‘ăṣaltayim (Ecclesiastes 10:18).
- Against the English
KJV/WEB 'slothful' sounds like a lasting trait of character, laziness. BSB/NIV 'hesitate' and ESV 'slow' capture a hanging back at this particular moment, which suits the context better.
- How it drifted
'Slothful' has moved toward meaning a lazy person in general, and it carries the overtone of sloth as one of the seven deadly sins, a later Christian list. Here the word is a tactical warning against delay.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Proverbs sluggard is someone who will not act when the moment calls for it (Proverbs 6:6–11; 26:13, 'there is a lion in the road'). Because the verb occurs only here, its meaning is inferred from these related words (BDB, HALOT s.v. עצל).
Where it appears
Judges · 1
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Judges 18:9 תֵּעָ֣צְל֔וּ you hesitate
They answered, “Come on, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Why would you fail to act? Do not hesitate to go there and take possession of the land!
Here: 'Don't be slow / don't hang back.' This is the only place in the Bible where the root appears as a verb. It is the root of 'sluggard' in Proverbs, so here it means foot-dragging when action is needed.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.