Hebrew word · H6736
צִיר
tzirim
image
A rare word. There are several unrelated Hebrew words spelled tsir: 'envoy', 'hinge', 'birth-pang'. This one means 'form, image, shaped object'. It is usually connected to a root tsur, 'to shape, fashion' (compare 1 Kings 7:15, where Hiram 'fashioned' or cast the bronze pillars).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
image, idol
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 45:16
- Range of meaning
A rare word. There are several unrelated Hebrew words spelled tsir: 'envoy', 'hinge', 'birth-pang'. This one means 'form, image, shaped object'. It is usually connected to a root tsur, 'to shape, fashion' (compare 1 Kings 7:15, where Hiram 'fashioned' or cast the bronze pillars).
- Against the English
Most English versions say 'idols'. That is fair in context, but it loses the hint that these are just 'shapes', crafted forms. 'Images' (YLT) is closer.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The only other clear occurrence is Psalm 49:14 (English 49:15), where the spoken reading has tsuram, 'their form', which will waste away in Sheol. The ancient versions struggled with the word here. The Septuagint apparently read a call to 'islands' (as in 41:1), and the Vulgate has fabricatores errorum, 'makers of errors'.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 45:16 צִירִֽים׃ images
They will all be put to shame and humiliated; the makers of idols will depart together in disgrace.
Here: 'Images' or 'shaped things'. The word is rare and seems to come from a root meaning 'to shape or fashion'. It points to the statue as a manufactured object, which is exactly Isaiah's point.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.