צַר

From the study of Isaiah 5:30

Range of meaning

Two words share this spelling. (1) An adjective or noun meaning 'narrow, tight', hence 'distress, straits' (2 Sam 22:7; Ps 4:1, 'you gave me room when I was in straits'). (2) 'Adversary, enemy' (Isa 9:11; Lam 1:5). The supplied data takes it as sense (1).

Against the English

KJV 'sorrow' makes it an emotion. The Hebrew is about being squeezed: pressure, siege, nowhere to go. 'Distress' (BSB, WEB, ESV) is closer, especially if 'distress' is heard as 'dire straits'.

How it drifted

Older English used 'sorrow' broadly for affliction or trouble. Today it means sadness, so the physical picture of being hemmed in has dropped out.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 8:22 is a very close parallel: 'he will look to the land, and behold, distress (tsarah) and darkness'. The related noun tsarah there confirms that the 'distress' meaning is in Isaiah's own vocabulary for this scene.

From the study of Isaiah 30:20

Range of meaning

Ṣar: 'narrow, cramped', and figuratively 'distress' or 'adversary'. Laḥaṣ: 'pressure, squeezing, oppression' (Exod 3:9, Egypt's oppression of Israel). Both picture physical tightness.

Against the English

'Bread of adversity and water of affliction' (KJV, BSB, WEB) sounds like a poetic figure for hardship. The Vulgate's 'narrow bread and short water' and some modern Jewish versions ('meager bread and scant water') make it concrete: tiny rations.

How it drifted

Elevated King James phrasing turned the expression into a devotional metaphor for 'hard times'. The Hebrew points to literal reduced food and water.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Kings 22:27 / 2 Chronicles 18:26: the king of Israel orders Micaiah fed 'bread of laḥaṣ and water of laḥaṣ' in prison, meaning minimum rations. Siege conditions in Isaiah 36:12 (Rabshakeh's threat) show how real scarcity was in Jerusalem in 701 BC.

From the study of Isaiah 59:19

Range of meaning

Two related uses of the root ṣrr ('to bind, be tight, be narrow'). (1) Adjective: 'narrow, cramped, confined', as in a 'narrow place' (Num 22:26) or a 'narrow' well (Prov 23:27). (2) Noun: 'distress, trouble' (what hems you in), and also 'adversary, foe' (the one who hems you in). The noun 'adversary' is very common, and in v.18, one verse earlier, the plural ṣārāyw means 'his foes'.

Against the English

KJV/YLT: 'the enemy / an adversary'. NIV: 'pent-up'. ESV/NASB/WEB: 'rushing'. BSB/NLT: 'raging'. The modern versions read the adjective and turn 'narrow' into what a narrowed river does: it surges.

How it drifted

Translators of the King James period followed a reading also found in the Aramaic Targum: an enemy coming like the Euphrates in flood. The verse was then read alone, as a promise of protection against attackers, and the flood was moved from God to the enemy.

Used elsewhere in the period

Adjective: Num 22:26; Prov 23:27; Isa 49:20. Noun 'foe': Isa 59:18, the verse just before; Isa 63:18; Ps 3:2. The Targum of Isaiah reads 'oppressors'. The Septuagint has no 'enemy' and makes the subject God's wrath coming 'like a violent river'. The Vulgate has fluvius violentus, 'violent river', driven by 'the spirit of the Lord'.