Aramaic word · H7118

קְצָת

ketzat

end

Qəṣāt means end, edge or extremity. With a time word it means the moment a period is complete. Yəraḥ is the lunar month. "Twelve months" is one full year.

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

end, part

Aramaic of qe.tsat (קְצָת "end" H7117)

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 4:29

Range of meaning

Qəṣāt means end, edge or extremity. With a time word it means the moment a period is complete. Yəraḥ is the lunar month. "Twelve months" is one full year.

Against the English

BSB, NIV, NASB and NLT say "Twelve months later". KJV, WEB and YLT keep "at the end of twelve months". Both are accurate. The more literal form keeps the echo with 4:34, "at the end of the days", which marks out the whole period of judgment.

Used elsewhere in the period

Biblical Aramaic uses qəṣāt only in Daniel: 1:5, 15, 18 in its Hebrew form, and 4:29, 34 in Aramaic. In 1:15 and 1:18 it marks the end of a test period. Daniel 4:34 has the same construction, liqṣāt yômayyāʾ.

Where it appears

Daniel · 3

  1. Daniel 2:42 קְצָ֤ת [the] part of

    And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.

  2. Daniel 4:29 לִקְצָ֥ת to [the] end of

    Twelve months later, as he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,

    Here: "To the end of": the point where a set stretch of time runs out. Daniel 4:34 uses the same expression ("at the end of the days") when the king's madness ends, so the phrase marks out the start and finish of the episode.

  3. Daniel 4:34 וְלִקְצָ֣ת and to [the] end of

    But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

    Here: 'And at the end of'. It marks the end of the fixed period announced in 4:16, 23, 25, 32 ('seven times'). The humbling had a limit set by Heaven, and it has now run out.

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