צַו

From the study of Isaiah 28:10

Range of meaning

Traditionally "command, injunction", as if a short form of the verb tsavah ("to command"). It appears in the Hebrew Bible only here, in the matching verse 28:13, and in the disputed Hosea 5:11. The normal Hebrew word for a commandment is mitsvah. Because the word is so rare and so clipped, many modern scholars think it works here as a sound more than as vocabulary, and the lexicons reflect that uncertainty.

Against the English

"Precept" (KJV, WEB, ESV) sounds like a dignified moral teaching. "Order" (BSB, NASB) and "rule" (YLT) are closer to a curt command. "Do this, do that" (NIV) catches the nagging tone. Renderings such as "mutter" (NJPS) and "gibberish" (NET) treat it as noise. None of them can carry the sound effect.

How it drifted

The derivation from "command" is old and shows up in the Latin Vulgate's manda. "Precept" then became a familiar church word through the older English Bibles, and with the line lifted out of its setting it came to sound like a positive description of doctrine.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hosea 5:11 says Ephraim was determined to walk after tsav, a puzzling phrase: the Septuagint reads "vanities" there, and many scholars suspect a textual problem. The Dead Sea Damascus Document (CD 4:19–20) takes up the Hosea phrase and treats tsav as a false preacher, which shows that the word was already being explained in Second Temple times. The Septuagint of Isaiah 28:10 does not translate it as "command" at all, but as "affliction".

From the study of Isaiah 28:13

Range of meaning

Traditionally taken as a short noun from the verb ṣiwwâ 'to command', so 'command, precept'. Outside Isaiah 28:10, 13 the noun appears only in Hosea 5:11, a verse whose meaning is disputed: the Septuagint there read it as 'emptiness', and many scholars correct it to šāw' 'worthlessness'. In Isaiah 28 many modern lexicons and commentators treat it as a sound syllable, not a real word, or at most as a word used mainly for its sound.

Against the English

KJV, ESV and WEB say 'precept', which sounds like a moral or doctrinal rule. NASB and BSB say 'order'. NIV gives 'Do this, do that' with a footnote calling the Hebrew probably meaningless sounds. NLT goes for the repetitive, mocking effect.

How it drifted

Because the KJV said 'precept', English readers took the phrase as a positive statement about how teaching works. The rhyming chant behind it was lost from view, and the phrase came loose from its context of mockery and judgment.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint guessed at the sound: in vv. 10 and 13 it renders thlipsis epi thlipsin, 'affliction upon affliction', apparently linking ṣaw with ṣar 'distress'. The Vulgate gives manda remanda ('command, command again'). In 1958 W. W. Hallo compared the pair ṣaw/qaw with alphabet practice texts from Ugarit and Israel, because tsade and qof are neighbouring letters. Other scholars hear an echo of v. 8's qîʾ ṣōʾâ, 'vomit, filth'.