Hebrew word · H7823

סָחִישׁ

sachish

offspring

Growth that springs up a second time: shoots from the stubble or roots of the first volunteer crop, or seed it dropped. The word occurs only here and in 2 Kgs 19:29, where the consonants are swapped. Its meaning is worked out mainly from the context and from its pairing with sāpîaḥ (HALOT).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) volunteer grain

1a) grain that shoots up of itself the second year, without replanting

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 Isaiah 37:30

Range of meaning

Growth that springs up a second time: shoots from the stubble or roots of the first volunteer crop, or seed it dropped. The word occurs only here and in 2 Kgs 19:29, where the consonants are swapped. Its meaning is worked out mainly from the context and from its pairing with sāpîaḥ (HALOT).

Against the English

BSB/KJV 'what springs from the same,' WEB 'that which springs from it,' YLT 'the spontaneous growth.' These are reasonable guesses at a rare word. Translations that make it plainly 'what grows by itself' again can blur the step down, since this is the second generation of an untended crop.

Used elsewhere in the period

No certain use outside these two parallel verses. Lexicons connect it, tentatively, to similar words in later Hebrew and Aramaic.

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 19:29 סָחִ֑ישׁ self-seeded plant[s]

    And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 37:30 שָׁחִ֑יס self-seeded plant[s]

    And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

    Here: A rare word found only here and in 2 Kgs 19:29. It means growth that springs up a second time, from the roots or from seed dropped by the first year's volunteer crop. It is thinner still: the land is living on leftovers of leftovers.

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