Hebrew word · H6839

צֹפִים

tzofim

Zophim

Formed from the participle of ṣāp̄āh, "to watch, look out, keep guard." The related noun ṣōp̄eh means "watchman/sentinel" (2 Sam 18:24; Ezek 3:17). Mizpah ("watchtower") comes from a related root.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Zophim = "watchers"

a spot on or near the top of Pisgah, the site of Balaam's oracles

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 Numbers 23:14

Range of meaning

Formed from the participle of ṣāp̄āh, "to watch, look out, keep guard." The related noun ṣōp̄eh means "watchman/sentinel" (2 Sam 18:24; Ezek 3:17). Mizpah ("watchtower") comes from a related root.

Against the English

English versions leave it as the name "Zophim," so the reader loses the meaning a Hebrew hearer would have caught: "Lookouts."

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint translates it rather than writing out the name: agrou skopian, "a lookout of the field." The Vulgate likewise speaks of a high place.

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 23:14 צֹפִ֔ים Zophim

    So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

    Here: A place name formed from the verb ṣāp̄āh, "to keep watch, look out." A Hebrew hearer would hear "Lookouts' Field" or "Watchers' Field," which fits a high point picked so Balaam could see Israel's camp (v. 13).

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