Aramaic word · H7804
שֵׁיזִב
lesheizavuteh
to rescue
To rescue, save, deliver from danger. A loanword from Akkadian šūzubu, 'to cause to escape, save', the causative of ezēbu, 'to leave'. It means getting someone physically out of a threat.
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears 9 times in 7 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Peel or Peil) to deliver
Aramaic of shuv (שׁוּב ": return" H7725)
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
To rescue, save, deliver from danger. A loanword from Akkadian šūzubu, 'to cause to escape, save', the causative of ezēbu, 'to leave'. It means getting someone physically out of a threat.
- Against the English
'Deliver' (BSB, KJV, WEB) and 'rescue' (NIV, NLT) both fit. The word is concrete, rescue from a real fire or a real lion. It is not the later abstract sense of 'salvation' from sin.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Used in Daniel at 3:15, 3:17, 3:28 and 6:14, 16, 20, 27 (English 6:14–27), and in Imperial Aramaic texts of the Persian period. Its Akkadian origin fits the Babylonian court setting.
- Range of meaning
'To rescue, save, get someone out of danger'. It means a concrete rescue from a real threat (fire, lions, an enemy's hand), not an abstract or spiritual salvation.
- Against the English
'Deliver' (KJV, ESV, BSB, WEB) and 'rescue' (NIV, NLT) both work. 'Rescue' is a little more vivid for modern ears, since 'deliver' can sound like delivering a parcel.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The word was borrowed from Akkadian, the language of Babylon and Assyria. Its source, šūzubu, 'to save', is a common verb in Akkadian prayers and royal inscriptions (see the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary under ezēbu). It also appears in Imperial Aramaic, the official Aramaic of the Persian empire. In Daniel it is a theme word. Nebuchadnezzar taunts, 'what god will rescue you out of my hands?' (3:15). The friends answer, 'our God… is able to rescue us' (3:17), and the king later admits that God 'rescued his servants' (3:28). In chapter 6 Darius 'labored to rescue' Daniel and failed (6:14). He then says this verse, asks at dawn 'has your God been able to rescue you?' (6:20), and finally decrees that this God 'rescues and saves' (6:27).
- Range of meaning
'Rescue, deliver, get someone out safe.' It is borrowed from Babylonian (Akkadian) šūzubu, 'to save', literally 'cause to leave' danger.
- Against the English
'Deliver' (BSB, KJV, WEB, YLT) and 'rescue' (NIV, NLT) both fit. 'Deliver' here means physical rescue from death, not 'salvation' in a later spiritual sense.
- How it drifted
Readers may hear 'deliver/save' as eternal salvation. In this verse it means getting out of the lions' jaws alive.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Dan 3:15, 17, 28; 6:14, 16, 20, 27. It was common in Babylonian royal and prayer language, and the later Aramaic translations use it for Hebrew words meaning 'rescue' and 'save'.
Where it appears
Daniel · 9
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Daniel 3:15 יְשֵֽׁיזְבִנְכ֖וֹן he will deliver you
Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the statue I have made, very good. But if you refuse to worship, you will be thrown at once into the blazing fiery furnace. Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?”
Here: 'Will rescue you', a word borrowed from Akkadian meaning to get someone out of danger. It is the theme word of the story: the friends pick it up in v. 17, and the king himself uses it in v. 28.
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Daniel 3:17 לְשֵׁיזָבוּתַ֑נָא יְשֵׁיזִֽב׃ to deliver us, he will deliver
If the God whom we serve exists, then He is able to deliver us from the blazing fiery furnace and from your hand, O king.
Here: 'To rescue us': the infinitive form with an 'us' ending. This is the verb the king used in his taunt in v.15, so the friends hand his own word back to him.
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Daniel 3:28 וְשֵׁיזִ֣ב and he has delivered
Nebuchadnezzar declared, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
Here: "And rescued." This answers the king's own taunt in 3:15: "Who is the god who will rescue you from my hands?" It also confirms the three men's words in 3:17: "our God… is able to rescue us."
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Daniel 6:14 לְשֵׁיזָבוּתֵ֑הּ to deliver him
As soon as the king heard this, he was deeply distressed and set his mind on delivering Daniel, and he labored until sundown to rescue him.
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Daniel 6:16 יְשֵׁיזְבִנָּֽךְ׃ may he deliver you
So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!”
Here: 'He will / may he rescue you'. The verb form can state a fact ('will') or voice a wish ('may'), so the king's tone is ambiguous. It is the same verb the king himself had just failed to accomplish (v. 14).
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Daniel 6:20 לְשֵׁיזָבוּתָ֖ךְ to deliver you
When he reached the den, he cried out in a voice of anguish, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?”
Here: 'Rescue, get you out safe.' The word is borrowed from Babylonian. The king used it in v.14, where he tried until sunset to rescue Daniel and failed, and again in v.16: 'your God… will rescue you.'
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Daniel 6:27 מְשֵׁיזִ֣ב שֵׁיזִ֣יב [he is] delivering, he has delivered
He delivers and rescues; He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.”
Here: A participle, 'delivering' or 'a deliverer', describing what God habitually does. This is the verb Darius used in his hopes (6:16, 20) and that the three friends used in 3:17. Now the king confesses that this God really does deliver.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.