Hebrew word · H7083
קֶ֫סֶת
keset
pot
Qeset occurs only in Ezekiel 9:2, 3 and 11. Lexicons (HALOT, BDB) generally take it as a loanword from Egyptian gsti, the scribe's palette: a long, narrow wooden board with a slot for reed pens and hollows for black and red ink. Sopher means scribe, secretary or official record-keeper.
Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
pot (for ink), inkhorn, inkwell
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
- Range of meaning
Qeset occurs only in Ezekiel 9:2, 3 and 11. Lexicons (HALOT, BDB) generally take it as a loanword from Egyptian gsti, the scribe's palette: a long, narrow wooden board with a slot for reed pens and hollows for black and red ink. Sopher means scribe, secretary or official record-keeper.
- Against the English
KJV and WEB say 'writer's inkhorn' and YLT 'scribe's inkhorn'. Modern versions say 'writing case' or 'writing kit'. 'Inkhorn' was a natural word for a 1611 writing tool, but it makes a modern reader picture an animal horn full of ink, which is not what the Hebrew object was.
- How it drifted
Early modern English writers carried ink in horn containers, so KJV translators chose the equipment of their own day. The Hebrew points to an Egyptian-style palette with pens and ink together.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Egyptian tomb paintings and statues show scribes with the palette slung over the shoulder or tucked into the waistband, and many real palettes survive. The Septuagint did not understand the word and gave 'a sapphire belt'. The Vulgate gives atramentarium scriptoris, 'the scribe's ink-holder'.
Where it appears
Ezekiel · 3
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Ezekiel 9:2 וְקֶ֥סֶת and [the] writing-case of
And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a weapon of slaughter in his hand. With them was another man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Here: A rare word found only in this chapter, probably borrowed from Egyptian: a scribe's palette holding reed pens and cakes of ink.
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Ezekiel 9:3 קֶ֥סֶת <the> writing-case of
Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.
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Ezekiel 9:11 הַקֶּ֙סֶת֙ the writing-case
Then the man clothed in linen with the writing kit at his side reported back, “I have done as You commanded.”
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.