שְׁמַם

From the study of Daniel 4:19

Range of meaning

The Aramaic root matches Hebrew šāmēm: 'to be desolate', and of people, 'to be appalled, horrified, stunned'. The reflexive form here (ʾeštômam) describes the inner state of someone stopped short by something devastating. It is the frozen silence of horror, not the bafflement of not understanding.

Against the English

KJV has 'astonied' (stunned) and YLT 'astonished'. Today 'astonished' tends to suggest pleasant surprise or amazement, which loses the horror. BSB and NIV have 'perplexed', which suggests Daniel could not work out the dream, the opposite of the text. ESV 'dismayed' and NASB 'appalled' are closer. WEB 'stricken mute' follows the Greek tradition (see textual notes) and captures the silence but not the horror.

How it drifted

'Astonish' has softened in English since 1611, when it meant 'to stun, to strike senseless'. 'Perplexed' is a translators' choice, perhaps shaped by the idea of an interpreter 'puzzling over' a dream.

Used elsewhere in the period

Hebrew šāmēm describes people appalled at a disaster: Lev 26:32; 1 Kgs 9:8; Jer 18:16; Ezek 3:15, where Ezekiel sits 'appalled' among the exiles for seven days; Ezra 9:3–4, where Ezra sits 'appalled'. In Hebrew Daniel the same root forms 'the abomination that makes desolate' (9:27; 11:31; 12:11) and Daniel's own reaction to a vision (8:27, 'I was appalled').