Aramaic word · H6151
עֲרַב
me'arav
to mix
In Aramaic: to mix, mingle, combine. The passive form means "mixed"; the reflexive form (used twice here) means "to mix oneself, intermingle, become involved with".
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 4 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to mix, join together
1a) (Pael) mixed (participle)
1b) (Ithpael) mixed (participle)
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
In Aramaic: to mix, mingle, combine. The passive form means "mixed"; the reflexive form (used twice here) means "to mix oneself, intermingle, become involved with". The related Hebrew root covers mixing, pledging and joining in exchange (Ezra 9:2 uses it for the "holy seed" mixing with foreign peoples through marriage).
- Against the English
"Mixed" and "mingle" are accurate. The BSB's "the peoples will mix with one another" adds a subject ("peoples") that the Aramaic leaves implied, and makes the mixing sound like populations blending. The Aramaic keeps the focus on mixing "by human seed".
- Used elsewhere in the period
Daniel 2:41 and 2:43 (four times in the passage). Compare Hebrew Ezra 9:2, where the people "have mixed themselves" (hit'arvu), a reflexive verb, "the holy seed with the peoples of the lands". Mixing combined with "seed" there plainly means intermarriage. Theodotion's Greek renders the phrase with symmigeis ("mixed together").
Where it appears
Daniel · 4
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Daniel 2:41 מְעָרַ֖ב mixed
And just as you saw that the feet and toes were made partly of fired clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom, yet some of the strength of iron will be in it—just as you saw the iron mixed with clay.
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Daniel 2:43 מְעָרַב֙ מִתְעָרְבִ֤ין מִתְעָרַ֖ב mixed, mixing, [is] mixing
As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay.
Here: "Mixed", a passive participle describing a fixed state. The iron is combined with clay, but the verse goes on to say the two never truly fuse.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.