Hebrew word · H6706

צְחִיחַ

tzechiach

bare

Tsechiach comes from a root meaning dazzling, glaring, sun-dried. It means an exposed, bare, sun-scorched surface (Ezek 24:7–8; 26:4, 14; Neh 4:13 [Heb 4:7], 'the exposed places'; compare Ps 68:6 [Heb 7], tsechichah, 'parched land'). Selaʿ is a rock face, crag or cliff.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

shining or glaring surface, glow

Also means: tse.chi.chi (צְחִיחִי "higher" H6708)

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 Ezekiel 26:4

Range of meaning

Tsechiach comes from a root meaning dazzling, glaring, sun-dried. It means an exposed, bare, sun-scorched surface (Ezek 24:7–8; 26:4, 14; Neh 4:13 [Heb 4:7], 'the exposed places'; compare Ps 68:6 [Heb 7], tsechichah, 'parched land'). Selaʿ is a rock face, crag or cliff.

Against the English

Most modern versions say 'bare rock', which is accurate. KJV 'like the top of a rock' adds 'like' and 'top', which turns a description of bare exposure into one of height. YLT 'clear place of a rock' is literal but clumsy.

How it drifted

KJV followed older interpretation that took tsechiach as an exposed high point. The word is about being bare and sun-baked, not about elevation.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezek 24:7–8: Jerusalem's blood was poured 'on the bare rock' and not covered with ʿafar (dust). God leaves it exposed there as a witness that cries out. LXX renders it with a word for smooth or bare rock in both chapters 24 and 26.

Where it appears

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 4:13 בַּצְּחִיחִ֑ים in the open places

    So I stationed men behind the lowest sections of the wall, at the vulnerable areas. I stationed them by families with their swords, spears, and bows.

Ezekiel · 4

  1. Ezekiel 24:7 צְחִ֥יחַ bareness of

    For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust.

  2. Ezekiel 24:8 צְחִ֣יחַ bareness of

    In order to stir up wrath and take vengeance, I have placed her blood on the bare rock, so that it would not be covered.’

  3. Ezekiel 26:4 לִצְחִ֥יחַ into bareness of

    They will destroy the walls of Tyre and demolish her towers. I will scrape the soil from her and make her a bare rock.

    Here: From a root meaning glaring, dry or exposed to the sun. It is a scorched, uncovered, shining surface with nothing on it. Ezekiel used the same phrase earlier for the bare rock where Jerusalem's blood lay uncovered (24:7–8).

  4. Ezekiel 26:14 לִצְחִ֣יחַ into bareness of

    I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread the fishing nets. You will never be rebuilt, for I, the LORD, have spoken, declares the Lord GOD.’

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