Hebrew word · H6692

צוּץ

yatzitz

to blossom

Tsuts: 'to blossom, flower, shine'. Related nouns are tsits, 'blossom', and the gleaming gold plate on the high priest's turban. Paraḥ: 'to sprout, bud, break out, flourish'.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to blossom, shine, sparkle

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to flourish

1a2) to shine, gleam

1b) (Hiphil) to blossom, put forth blossoms, produce blossoms

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 27:6

Range of meaning

Tsuts: 'to blossom, flower, shine'. Related nouns are tsits, 'blossom', and the gleaming gold plate on the high priest's turban. Paraḥ: 'to sprout, bud, break out, flourish'. It is used of plants, of the desert in bloom (Isaiah 35:1–2), of bones 'flourishing like grass' (Isaiah 66:14), of the righteous (Psalm 92:12), and of a skin disease 'breaking out' (Leviticus 13).

Against the English

BSB and NIV reverse the Hebrew order ('bud and blossom'). KJV and WEB keep it ('blossom and bud'). Some versions render paraḥ as 'put forth shoots' or 'sprout'. The differences are small and the sense is stable.

Used elsewhere in the period

Numbers 17:8 (Hebrew 17:23): Aaron's staff 'sprouted (wayyifraḥ peraḥ), put out blossoms (wayyatsets tsits), and produced almonds', a sign of life given by God where none was expected. Psalm 92:7, 12: the wicked 'sprout' briefly, but the righteous 'flourish' lastingly. Isaiah 40:6–8: human glory is like a tsits, a flower that withers.

From the study of Ezekiel 7:10

Range of meaning

Ṣûṣ: to blossom or flower, related to the noun for a blossom, which also names the gold plate on the high priest's turban (Exodus 28:36). Pāraḥ: to sprout, bud or burst out, of plants and also of skin disease (Leviticus 13). Used together they describe flourishing, rather than two exact botanical stages.

Against the English

BSB swaps the pairing ("rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed"), while the Hebrew has blossom with the rod and sprout with arrogance. KJV and ESV keep the Hebrew order. The swap changes little in substance.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same pair appears for good in Isaiah 27:6, where Israel will blossom and sprout, and for the wicked in Psalm 92:7 (92:8 in Hebrew), where their flourishing leads to destruction. They appear together with the rod in Numbers 17:8. Ezekiel 17:24 uses pāraḥ of God making a dry tree flourish.

From the study of Psalm 103:15

Range of meaning

To sprout, bud, blossom or flower. It is used of plants coming into bloom and, by extension, of people or the righteous 'flowering' (Ps 72:16; 92:7; Isa 27:6).

Against the English

KJV, WEB, NASB and ESV have 'flourishes'. When the KJV was made, 'flourish' still carried its root sense of 'come into flower' (from Latin florere). Today it mostly means 'thrive, prosper over time'. BSB's 'blooms' and NLT's 'bloom' are closer.

How it drifted

English 'flourish' has moved from 'to blossom' to 'to do well, prosper'. That turns a picture of a brief bloom into one of lasting success.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 92:7 makes the same point about the wicked: they 'sprout like grass' and 'blossom' (yāṣîṣû), only to be destroyed forever. Isa 27:6: Israel 'will bud and blossom'.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 17:8 וַיָּ֣צֵֽץ and it had blossomed

    The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.

    Here: 'It blossomed.' The next stage of growth, open flowers.

Psalms · 5

  1. Psalm 72:16 וְיָצִ֥יצוּ and may people blossom

    May there be an abundance of grain in the land; may it sway atop the hills. May its fruit trees flourish like the forests of Lebanon, the people of its cities like the grass of the field.

    Here: 'And may they sprout/bloom': a plant word used for people. The unnamed 'they' are the inhabitants, who come up thick and quick like new growth after rain.

  2. Psalm 90:6 יָצִ֣יץ it flourishes

    in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers.

  3. Psalm 92:7 וַ֭יָּצִיצוּ and they blossomed

    that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

    Here: "And they blossomed / burst into flower." The verb means putting out flowers. Elsewhere it also means peering or peeping out (Song 2:9), and the Greek translation took that sense: the wicked "pop up" into view. The verb form tells the sprouting as a sequence of events: they came up, they bloomed.

  4. Psalm 103:15 יָצִֽיץ׃ he flourishes

    As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;

    Here: 'He blossoms'. The verb comes from the same root as the noun 'blossom' just before it (ṣîṣ … yāṣîṣ, 'blossom … blossoms'), so the sound repeats the point. The verb form describes what always happens, a general truth. Even a person's best moment, when they are in full bloom, is the moment just before the withering in v. 16.

  5. Psalm 132:18 יָצִ֥יץ it will shine

    I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”

    Here: Literally 'will put out blossom'. The same verb is used of Aaron's rod budding (Num 17:8). The noun from this root, tsits, also names the gleaming gold plate on the high priest's turban. So the crown both flourishes like a living plant and glints like polished gold.

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 2:9 מֵצִ֖יץ [is] peering

    My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look, he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 27:6 יָצִ֥יץ it will blossom

    In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

    Here: To burst into bloom. The related noun tsits means 'flower' (Isaiah 40:6–8, the flower that withers). Here the blossoming is the people's renewed life after judgment.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 7:10 צָ֚ץ it has blossomed

    Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.

    Here: "Has blossomed." A word for something lovely and full of life is used here for a menace that has come to maturity, and the effect is chilling.

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