Hebrew word · H8078

שִׁמָּמוֹן

beshimamon

horror

Horror, appallment, a stunned and devastated state. From shamem, which means both 'to be desolate' (of land and cities) and 'to be appalled' or 'struck dumb' (of people). The noun occurs only here and in Ezekiel 12:19.

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

What it means

horror, dismay, appalment

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 Ezekiel 4:16

Range of meaning

Horror, appallment, a stunned and devastated state. From shamem, which means both 'to be desolate' (of land and cities) and 'to be appalled' or 'struck dumb' (of people). The noun occurs only here and in Ezekiel 12:19.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'astonishment', WEB and ESV 'dismay', NASB 'horror', BSB and NIV 'despair'. 'Despair' moves the meaning toward hopelessness. The Hebrew points instead to a stunned, numb shock, like someone looking at ruins.

How it drifted

KJV's 'astonishment' meant being stunned or struck senseless (from 'astone'). Today it usually means pleasant surprise.

Used elsewhere in the period

The root runs all through Ezekiel. In 3:15 Ezekiel sits among the exiles 'stunned' (mashmim) for seven days. The land is to become 'a desolation' (shemamah, 6:14; 33:28), and in 4:17 the people 'are appalled' (venashammu) at one another. Leviticus 26:32 uses the same root: 'your enemies… shall be appalled'.

From the study of Ezekiel 12:19

Range of meaning

Horror, appalment, stunned stupor. From the root sh-m-m, which covers both 'to be desolate, laid waste' and 'to be appalled, stunned' at seeing devastation.

Against the English

BSB 'dread', WEB 'dismay', KJV and YLT 'astonishment', NASB-type 'horror'. 'Astonishment' in 1611 meant being stunned or struck senseless, which is close to the Hebrew. Modern readers hear mild surprise.

How it drifted

'Astonish' comes from Old French estoner, 'to stun' (as by thunder). In early modern English it carried that physical sense, which has since faded to 'amaze'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Found only in Ezekiel (4:16; 12:19), both times describing how water is drunk under judgment. The root appears constantly in Ezekiel for desolate lands (6:14; 12:20; 33:28-29) and for onlookers who are 'appalled' (26:16; 27:35).

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 2

  1. Ezekiel 4:16 וּבְשִׁמָּמ֖וֹן and in horror

    Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

    Here: 'And in horror.' The word means the stunned, frozen state of someone devastated by disaster. It comes from the same root as 'desolate', the word Ezekiel uses for ruined land, so the people go numb as the city is laid waste.

  2. Ezekiel 12:19 בְּשִׁמָּמ֣וֹן in horror

    Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

    Here: A stunned, numb horror. It comes from the same root as 'desolate' in the next line, so the people's dazed state mirrors the land's devastation.

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