Hebrew word · H6427

פַּלָּצוּת

palatzut

shuddering

Shuddering, horror: the body's trembling at something dreadful. It comes from a root meaning to shudder or quake (Job 9:6, the pillars of the earth tremble).

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

shuddering, trembling

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 21:4

Range of meaning

Shuddering, horror: the body's trembling at something dreadful. It comes from a root meaning to shudder or quake (Job 9:6, the pillars of the earth tremble).

Against the English

KJV 'fearfulness', BSB 'fear', WEB/ESV 'horror'. 'Fear' alone misses the bodily shudder. 'Horror' with a sense of shaking comes closest.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 21:6 ('shuddering seizes my flesh'); Psalm 55:5; Ezekiel 7:18 ('horror will cover them').

From the study of Psalm 55:5

Range of meaning

Shuddering, convulsive horror. The root p-l-ts means to shake or quiver: in Job 9:6 the pillars of the earth 'shudder' (yitpallatsun). The related noun mipletset (1 Kgs 15:13) names a 'horrid thing'. Pallatsut itself occurs only in Job 21:6, Ps 55:6 (Heb), Isa 21:4 and Ezek 7:18.

Against the English

'Horror' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV, NASB) is acceptable, but today the word suggests revulsion, shock or a film genre. The Hebrew word is first of all physical: the body shaking uncontrollably. NLT's 'I can't stop shaking' catches the bodily side.

How it drifted

In older English, 'horror' (from Latin horror, 'bristling, shuddering') still carried the physical sense of shuddering with your hair on end. Modern usage has moved toward moral disgust or entertainment.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 21:6: 'when I remember, I am dismayed, and shuddering seizes my flesh'. Isaiah 21:4: 'my heart staggers, shuddering has terrified me', where the prophet reacts physically to a terrible vision. In every use it is a reaction of the whole body to something overwhelming.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 21:6 פַּלָּצֽוּת׃ shuddering

    When I remember, terror takes hold, and my body trembles in horror.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 55:5 פַּלָּצֽוּת׃ shuddering

    Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

    Here: A rare word (only four times in the Hebrew Bible). It comes from a root meaning to shake or quiver. It is convulsive shuddering, the whole body seized by dread. The sentence holds it back until the very end, so it lands last and hardest.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 21:4 פַּלָּצ֖וּת shuddering

    My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight I desired has turned to horror.

    Here: A bodily shudder of horror, the shaking that runs through the flesh (Job 21:6; Psalm 55:5; Ezekiel 7:18). Here it is the subject that acts: horror itself attacks him.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 7:18 פַּלָּצ֑וּת shuddering

    They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.