Hebrew word · H7852
שָׂטַם
yistemenu
to hate
To bear a grudge, nurse animosity, treat someone with hostility. It is a rare verb (about six occurrences) and describes lasting resentment, often with harm in view, rather than simple dislike.
Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to hate, oppose oneself to, bear a grudge, retain animosity against, cherish animosity against
1a) (Qal) to cherish animosity against
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 Genesis 27:41
- Range of meaning
To bear a grudge, nurse animosity, treat someone with hostility. It is a rare verb (about six occurrences) and describes lasting resentment, often with harm in view, rather than simple dislike.
- Against the English
KJV, WEB, YLT and ESV have “hated”; BSB and NASB have “held / bore a grudge”. “Hated” is not wrong, but it hides the sense of a lasting grievance that waits for its moment, which is exactly what the rest of the verse describes.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 50:15: Joseph's brothers fear that now Jacob is dead, Joseph “will bear a grudge” against them. Like Esau, they expect hostility to break out after a father's death. Gen 49:23 (archers “harassed” Joseph); Job 16:9 and 30:21 (God or an enemy pursuing Job with hostility); Ps 55:3 [Heb 55:4] (“in anger they bear a grudge against me”). The related noun maśṭēmâ, ‘hostility’, appears in Hos 9:7–8. In Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls (e.g., the War Scroll), Mastema becomes the name of the chief hostile spirit. LXX translates with enkoteō, ‘to bear a grudge, hold a lasting anger’.
- Range of meaning
To bear a grudge, cherish animosity, treat with hostility, harass. It describes nursed, long-running enmity that tends to turn into action against someone (HALOT, BDB).
- Against the English
KJV and ESV: 'hated'. BSB: 'opposed'. WEB: 'persecuted'. NASB: 'hunted me down'. 'Hate' captures the feeling. 'Opposed' or 'persecuted' captures the action. The Hebrew holds both: a grudge that pursues.
- How it drifted
Modern English 'hate' usually means an inner emotion. The Hebrew word stresses hostility that has settled and then acts, so 'hated' alone can sound like a mood rather than a campaign.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 27:41 (Esau 'held a grudge' against Jacob and planned to kill him); Gen 49:23 (archers 'harassed' Joseph); Gen 50:15 (the brothers fear Joseph will 'bear a grudge'); Ps 55:3 (Heb. 55:4) 'in anger (bəʾap̄) they bear a grudge against me', the same pairing with ʾap̄ found here. Job 30:21 uses it again of God: 'with the might of your hand you persecute me'. The related noun maśṭēmâ, 'hostility', appears in Hos 9:7–8. In Second Temple writings (Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls) Mastema becomes the name of the chief of the hostile spirits.
- Range of meaning
To bear a grudge, cherish animosity, be hostile toward, persecute. It is a rare verb (six times). It is probably related to śāṭan, the root of "satan" ("adversary, accuser").
- Against the English
KJV/YLT "hate," BSB "resent," ESV/NASB "bear a grudge," WEB "hold a grudge," NIV "assail." "Hate" is too purely an emotion. "Resent" is too passive and inward. The verb means hostility that is stored up and then carried out.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 27:41 (Esau "bore a grudge" against Jacob and planned to kill him); Gen 49:23 (archers attacked Joseph "with hostility"); Gen 50:15 ("perhaps Joseph will hold a grudge against us" and repay us); Job 16:9; 30:21 (Job says God "persecutes" him). The LXX here uses ἐνεκότουν μοι, "they were holding a grudge against me," which fits the Hebrew closely.
Where it appears
Genesis · 3
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Genesis 27:41 וַיִּשְׂטֹ֤ם and he bore a grudge against
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
Here: Not a flash of anger but a settled, cherished hostility. The narrative verb form moves the story forward: the blessing scene ends and the hatred begins.
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Genesis 49:23 וַֽיִּשְׂטְמֻ֖הוּ and they bear a grudge him
The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.
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Genesis 50:15 יִשְׂטְמֵ֖נוּ he will bear a grudge us
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.”
Job · 2
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Job 16:9 וַֽיִּשְׂטְמֵ֗נִי and it has assailed me
His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
Here: 'And he has held a grudge against me.' This is lasting, active hostility, the kind Esau held toward Jacob, not a passing feeling. In sound and meaning it is close to śāṭān, 'adversary', the figure from the book's opening chapters.
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Job 30:21 תִשְׂטְמֵֽנִי׃ you are hostile to me
You have ruthlessly turned on me; You oppose me with Your strong hand.
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 55:3 יִשְׂטְמֽוּנִי׃ they are hostile to me
at the voice of the enemy, at the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down disaster upon me and resent me in their anger.
Here: A nursed, long-running hostility that is acted on. It is used of Esau's plan to kill Jacob (Gen 27:41) and of the brothers' fear that Joseph would take revenge (Gen 50:15). The verb form describes something ongoing: they keep at it.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.