Hebrew word · H6728

צִי

tziyim

wild beast

Related to tsiyyah, "dry land, parched region" (Ps 63:1; Isa 35:1). The word tsiyyim refers to (1) creatures of the desert and of ruins, jackal-like or demonic in tone (Isa 13:21; 34:14; Jer 50:39), and (2) people who live in arid places (Ps 74:14, "the people of the tsiyyim").

Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) a wild beast, desert-dweller, crier, yelper

1a) a specific wild beast but not certainly identified

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 Psalm 72:9

Range of meaning

Related to tsiyyah, "dry land, parched region" (Ps 63:1; Isa 35:1). The word tsiyyim refers to (1) creatures of the desert and of ruins, jackal-like or demonic in tone (Isa 13:21; 34:14; Jer 50:39), and (2) people who live in arid places (Ps 74:14, "the people of the tsiyyim"). A word spelled the same way, tsi (Strong's H6716), means "ship" (Num 24:24; Isa 33:21; Dan 11:30). It is a separate word.

Against the English

The KJV and WEB have "they that dwell in the wilderness". The BSB and NASB have "nomads", and the NIV and ESV "desert tribes". The NRSV emends to "his foes", and the Greek and Latin have "Ethiopians". The renderings that refer to people capture the main sense. "Wilderness" can suggest forest or untouched nature to a modern reader, but the Hebrew picture is dry, sun-baked land.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) renders it Aithiopes, "Ethiopians", both here (its Ps 71:9) and in Ps 74:14 (its 73:14: "food for the Ethiopian peoples"). This suggests the translators understood the word as remote southern peoples living in hot, arid lands. The Vulgate (the Latin Bible) follows with Aethiopes. In Isaiah and Jeremiah the word names desert beasts.

From the study of Psalm 74:14

Range of meaning

Dwellers in the dry land (from ṣiyyāh, 'dryness, desert'). The word is used for wild desert animals that haunt ruins (Isa 13:21; 23:13; 34:14; Jer 50:39) and possibly desert nomads (Ps 72:9, where it is sometimes emended). A homonym, ṣî, means 'ship' (Num 24:24; Isa 33:21), but that is unlikely here.

Against the English

'Creatures of the desert/wilderness' (BSB, NIV, ESV), 'people inhabiting the wilderness' (KJV), 'people of the dry places' (YLT). The Septuagint and Vulgate turn it into a nation: 'Ethiopians'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders ṣiyyîm as 'Ethiopians' both here (LXX Ps 73:14) and in Ps 72:9 (LXX 71:9). This is probably an interpretive guess that linked 'desert-dwellers' with the far south. In Isaiah and Jeremiah ṣiyyîm are the eerie animals that move into destroyed cities.

Where it appears

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 72:9 צִיִּ֑ים desert-dwellers

    May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.

    Here: Comes from the word for parched, waterless land. Here it means the people of the steppe and desert fringe: nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, the hardest people to bring under any king. Elsewhere the same word names the wild animals that haunt ruins in the desert, and the ancient Greek translation took it as "Ethiopians".

  2. Psalm 74:14 לְצִיִּֽים׃ to desert-dwellers

    You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You fed him to the creatures of the desert.

    Here: 'Dry-land dwellers', from a root meaning 'dry'. Elsewhere it names the wild animals that haunt ruins and wastelands (Isa 13:21; 34:14). With the previous word: 'for the folk of the wasteland'.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 13:21 צִיִּ֔ים desert-dwellers

    But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about.

  2. Isaiah 23:13 לְצִיִּ֑ים to desert-dwellers

    Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.

  3. Isaiah 34:14 צִיִּים֙ desert-dwellers

    The desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and one wild goat will call to another. There the night creature will settle and find her place of repose.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 50:39 צִיִּים֙ desert-dwellers

    So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there and ostriches will dwell there. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation.

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