Hebrew word · H6592
פֵּ֫שֶׁר
pesher
interpretation
Interpretation, explanation, solution. It is the decoding of something whose meaning is hidden: a dream, a sign, a riddle, a hard situation. It comes from Aramaic pəšar, and its relative pātar is used of Joseph interpreting dreams in Genesis 40–41.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
interpretation, solution
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 Ecclesiastes 8:1
- Range of meaning
Interpretation, explanation, solution. It is the decoding of something whose meaning is hidden: a dream, a sign, a riddle, a hard situation. It comes from Aramaic pəšar, and its relative pātar is used of Joseph interpreting dreams in Genesis 40–41.
- Against the English
'Interpretation' is accurate, but to a modern ear it can sound like personal opinion ('that's just your interpretation'). In the ancient world a pēšer was a solution. It claimed to show what the thing really meant.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Found only here in the Hebrew portions of the Bible. Its Aramaic form appears about 30 times in Daniel 2, 4, 5 and 7, where Daniel gives the pəšar of the king's dreams and of the writing on the wall (e.g. Daniel 5:26). Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, a whole kind of commentary is called a 'pesher' (e.g. the Habakkuk Pesher), which reveals the hidden fulfilment of prophetic words. Akkadian pašāru is used for 'solving' dreams and omens.
Where it appears
Ecclesiastes · 1
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Ecclesiastes 8:1 פֵּ֣שֶׁר [the] interpretation of
Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.
Here: A borrowed Aramaic word found only here in Hebrew scripture. It is the word Daniel uses for interpreting dreams and the writing on the wall: unlocking what a puzzling thing really means.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.