Hebrew word · H6842

צָפִיר

tzefir-

male goat

tsafir means a male goat, a billy goat. Elsewhere it appears only in sacrificial lists (Ezra 8:35; 2 Chr 29:21; Aramaic tsefir in Ezra 6:17), always as a he-goat for a sin offering. Construed with 'of the goats', it marks the male of the flock and so its natural leader.

Appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

he-goat

Aramaic equivalent: tse.phir (צְפִיר "male goat" H6841)

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 Daniel 8:5

Range of meaning

tsafir means a male goat, a billy goat. Elsewhere it appears only in sacrificial lists (Ezra 8:35; 2 Chr 29:21; Aramaic tsefir in Ezra 6:17), always as a he-goat for a sin offering. Construed with 'of the goats', it marks the male of the flock and so its natural leader.

Against the English

KJV 'he goat', ESV/NASB/WEB 'male goat' and BSB 'goat' are all accurate. YLT's 'young he-goat' reads in a sense of youth that the word does not clearly carry.

Used elsewhere in the period

The word is a late, Aramaic-influenced term of the Persian and Hellenistic periods. Flock leaders as images of rulers are common in Hebrew: Isaiah 14:9 calls dead kings 'the he-goats of the earth' ('attudei arets'); Jeremiah 50:8 tells exiles to be 'like he-goats before the flock'; Ezekiel 34:17 and Zechariah 10:3 use rams and he-goats for the powerful. In Proverbs 30:31 the he-goat is among creatures that 'move with stately bearing', with the king.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 29:21 וּצְפִירֵ֨י and he-goats of

    They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And the king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.

Ezra · 1

  1. Ezra 8:35 צְפִירֵ֥י he-goats of

    Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and a sin offering of 12 male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.

Daniel · 4

  1. Daniel 8:5 צְפִיר־ וְהַ֨צָּפִ֔יר [the] he-goat of, and the he-goat

    As I was contemplating all this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came out of the west, crossing the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground.

    Here: A billy goat, specifically a male. The word is late Hebrew borrowed from Aramaic, found only in Daniel 8, Ezra 8:35 and 2 Chronicles 29:21 (and Aramaic in Ezra 6:17).

  2. Daniel 8:8 וּצְפִ֥יר and [the] he-goat of

    Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven.

    Here: The adult he-goat, the animal that leads and fights. It is a late word, found only in Ezra, Chronicles and Daniel and also in biblical Aramaic. Placed first in its clause, it swings attention from the trampled ram back to the victor.

  3. Daniel 8:21 וְהַצָּפִ֥יר and the he-goat

    The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king.

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