Hebrew word · H6633

צָבָא

litzvo'

to serve

To go out to war, to muster as a body for military service (Num 31:7, 42; Isa 29:7–8). Then, by extension, to do assigned duty in an organised group, especially sanctuary service. The related noun ṣābāʾ means 'army, host, term of hard service' (Job 7:1). It is the 'hosts' in 'LORD of hosts'.

Appears 14 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to go forth, wage war, fight, serve

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to wage war, fight, go forth to war

1a2) to serve (at sacred tent)

1b) (Hiphil) to cause to go forth, muster

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 Exodus 38:8

Range of meaning

To go out to war, to muster as a body for military service (Num 31:7, 42; Isa 29:7–8). Then, by extension, to do assigned duty in an organised group, especially sanctuary service. In Numbers it is the technical term for the Levites' work at the Tent of Meeting: 'to serve the service' (liṣbōʾ ṣābāʾ, Num 4:23; 8:24). The related noun ṣābāʾ means 'army, host, term of hard service' (Job 7:1). It is the 'hosts' in 'LORD of hosts'.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'assembling … assembled', which keeps the idea of a group gathering but loses the idea of duty or service. BSB, NIV and NLT have 'served'. ESV has 'ministering women who ministered' and NASB 'serving women who served', which keep the Hebrew's repetition. 'Ministering' can sound to modern ears like clergy or pastoral work, which is more specific than the text.

How it drifted

The early translators did not know what these women did, so they reached for neutral or pious guesses. The Greek has 'fasted', the Aramaic Targum 'came to pray', the Latin 'kept watch'. KJV's 'assembling' is another such guess, drawn from the 'muster' side of the word. It drops the plain parallel with the Levites' service.

Used elsewhere in the period

The exact phrase appears again only in 1 Samuel 2:22, where Eli's sons sleep with 'the women who served at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting'. That clause is missing from the Greek of 1 Samuel and from the Qumran scroll 4QSamᵃ, so it may have been added later from Exodus. Psalm 68:11 (Heb. 12) calls the women who proclaim the good news 'a great host' (ṣābāʾ rab), using the noun. Ancient interpreters split: LXX 'women who fasted'; Targum Onqelos 'women who came to pray'; Vulgate 'quae excubabant', 'who kept watch'; Ibn Ezra, women who gave up worldly vanities and came daily to pray and hear the commandments.

From the study of Zechariah 14:12

Range of meaning

To muster, go out as an army, wage war; also to serve in an organised body (used of Levites' service at the tent, Num 4:23; 8:24, and women serving at its entrance, Exod 38:8).

Against the English

"Warred against" (BSB), "fought against" (KJV, WEB). Accurate, though the root's link to "army/host" is lost in English.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 31:7, 42 (fighting against Midian); Isa 29:7–8 ("the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel [Jerusalem]" will vanish like a dream), a close thematic parallel; Isa 31:4 (the LORD of hosts will come down "to fight on Mount Zion").

Where it appears

Exodus · 2

  1. Exodus 38:8 הַצֹּ֣בְאֹ֔ת צָֽבְא֔וּ the serving [women], they served

    Next he made the bronze basin and its stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

    Here: A feminine plural form meaning 'the women who were doing duty'. The verb is the one used for mustering in an army and for the Levites' organised service at the sanctuary. It implies a recognised group of women with a regular duty, not a crowd that happened to be there.

Numbers · 4

  1. Numbers 4:23 לִצְבֹ֣א to serve

    from thirty to fifty years old, counting everyone who comes to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.

  2. Numbers 8:24 לִצְבֹ֣א to serve

    “This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years of age or older shall enter to perform the service in the work at the Tent of Meeting.

  3. Numbers 31:7 וַֽיִּצְבְּאוּ֙ and they waged war

    Then they waged war against Midian, as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.

  4. Numbers 31:42 הַצֹּבְאִֽים׃ who had gone to war

    From the Israelites’ half, which Moses had set apart from the men who had gone to war,

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 2:22 הַצֹּ֣בְא֔וֹת who were serving

    Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 25:19 הַמַּצְבִּ֖א who mustered

    Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as five royal advisors. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

Isaiah · 4

  1. Isaiah 29:7 הַצֹּבְאִ֖ים צֹבֶ֙יהָ֙ which wage war, [those who] wage war against it

    All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,

  2. Isaiah 29:8 הַצֹּבְאִ֖ים which wage war

    as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

  3. Isaiah 31:4 לִצְבֹּ֥א to wage war

    For this is what the LORD has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

    Here: The verb comes from the same root as 'armies'. The Lord of armies comes to make war, a pun in Hebrew.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 52:25 הַמַּצְבִּ֖א who mustered

    Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as seven trusted royal advisers. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 14:12 צָבְא֖וּ they have waged war

    And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

    Here: Verb related to tsava ("army, host"): they formed up as a war-host against the city. The perfect tense views the attack as already done by the time the blow falls.

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