אַסִּיר

From the study of Isaiah 42:7

Range of meaning

A prisoner, literally "one bound" (from asar, to bind or fetter): war captives, deportees, political detainees and debt prisoners. It appears mostly in poetry, for people in a hopeless captivity that only God can undo (Ps 68:6; 69:33; 79:11; 102:20; 107:10; Lam 3:34; Job 3:18).

Against the English

Modern "prisoner" calls up a criminal serving a sentence. Israelite law did not use imprisonment as a punishment. Prisons were holding places for suspects, political detainees (Joseph, Micaiah, Jeremiah) and captured enemies or deported kings (Jehoiachin). "Captive" is often closer.

How it drifted

Modern prison systems, where incarceration is the normal penalty for crime, shape what English readers hear in "prisoner".

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 14:17 mocks the king of Babylon as one who "did not open the house for his prisoners ('asiraw)", meaning he never released captives to go home. Ps 107:10 describes "those who sit in darkness and deep gloom, prisoners in affliction and iron". Mesopotamian kings boasted of proclaiming release for captives and debtors when they took the throne (andurāru; see Weinfeld).

From the study of Isaiah 10:4

Range of meaning

Prisoner or captive, literally 'bound one', from ʾāsar ('to bind, tie, harness'). It is used of prisoners of war and of prisoners in dungeons (Gen 39:20 uses a related form; Ps 68:6; Isa 24:22; 42:7).

Against the English

'Prisoners' and 'captives' are both accurate. 'Captives' fits the setting better because these are prisoners of war, not convicted criminals.

Used elsewhere in the period

Assyrian royal inscriptions boast repeatedly of taking captives and deporting whole populations. For Israel, 2 Kings 15:29 records that Tiglath-pileser III 'carried the people captive to Assyria' from Galilee and Gilead around 733–732 BC.

From the study of Psalm 79:11

Range of meaning

One who is bound: a prisoner or captive. It comes from ʾāsar, 'to bind, tie, fetter'. It is used of Joseph's fellow inmates in Pharaoh's prison (Genesis 39:20–22), of prisoners resting in death (Job 3:18), of captives God frees (Psalm 68:6 [68:7]; 69:33 [69:34]; 107:10; 146:7), of exiles (Isaiah 42:7; Lamentations 3:34) and of 'prisoners of hope' (Zechariah 9:11–12).

Against the English

'Prisoner' and 'captive' are both accurate, but a modern reader of 'prisoner' easily pictures a convicted criminal serving a sentence. BSB's 'captives' fits the context better.

How it drifted

Israel's law did not use imprisonment as a punishment. Prisons held people under a ruler's power, and 'the bound' in the Psalms are almost always victims of oppressors or of war. The modern prison system makes us hear guilt that the word does not carry.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Septuagint renders it 'the fettered ones' (pepedēmenōn), and the Latin Vulgate does the same (compeditorum). Assyrian and Babylonian royal records routinely describe conquered populations led away bound. Jehoiachin was held in a Babylonian prison for 37 years (2 Kings 25:27–29).