Hebrew word · H6687

צוּף

hetzif

to flow

To flow or overflow so that something is covered, and in the causative form to make something float. It is a rare verb. Deuteronomy 11:4 uses the causative for the sea that God "made to overflow" the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and 2 Kings 6:6 uses it for the iron axe-head Elisha "made float".

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to flow, overflow, flood, float

1a) (Qal) to flood

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to cause to flow over

1b2) to cause to float

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 Lamentations 3:54

Range of meaning

To flow or overflow so that something is covered, and in the causative form to make something float. It is a rare verb. Deuteronomy 11:4 uses the causative for the sea that God "made to overflow" the Egyptians at the Red Sea, and 2 Kings 6:6 uses it for the iron axe-head Elisha "made float". Lamentations 3:54 is the only use of the simple form (BDB, HALOT).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, NASB and BSB say "flowed over". ESV and NIV have "closed over", which nicely brings out the image of water shutting over the head. Neither choice misleads.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 11:4 ties the verb to the Red Sea drowning the Egyptians, the most famous drowning in Israel's memory. Later Hebrew has the related noun tsûf for honeycomb, "that which drips" (Proverbs 16:24), which shows the root's basic idea of liquid flowing.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 11:4 הֵצִ֜יף he caused to flow

    what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 6:6 וַיָּ֖צֶף and he caused to float

    “Where did it fall?” asked the man of God. And when he showed him the place, the man of God cut a stick, threw it there, and made the iron float.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:54 צָֽפוּ־ they overflowed

    The waters flowed over my head, and I thought I was going to die.

    Here: Water rising up and washing over something until it is covered. The completed form ("they have flowed over") shows the flooding as already done: the speaker is under. The verb begins with tsade, the letter this group of three verses must start with (see setting).

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