Hebrew word · H8226

שָׂפַן

usefunei

to treasure

Two passive verb forms stacked together: "the covered things of the hidden things of the sand". Śāfan ("cover, treasure up") appears only here. Ṭāman means to hide or bury (Joshua 7:21; Job 40:13). Doubling two near-synonyms is a Hebrew way of intensifying: "the most deeply hidden riches".

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to cover, cover in, panel, hide, treasure up

1a) (Qal)

1a1) covered, panelled, treasures (participle)

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 Deuteronomy 33:19

Range of meaning

Two passive verb forms stacked together: "the covered things of the hidden things of the sand". Śāfan ("cover, treasure up") appears only here. Ṭāman means to hide or bury (Joshua 7:21; Job 40:13). Doubling two near-synonyms is a Hebrew way of intensifying: "the most deeply hidden riches".

Against the English

"Hidden treasures of the sand" (BSB, WEB) and "treasures hid in the sand" (KJV) are fair. "Treasure" can make a modern reader think of a pirate's chest. The Hebrew means valuable resources that are hidden, not necessarily gold.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jewish tradition identified these riches concretely. The Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 6a) connects the phrase with the ḥilazon, the shellfish that produced the precious blue and purple dye, with a kind of fish, and with white glass. The Roman writer Pliny (Natural History 36.190–191) reports that glass was first made from the sand of the Belus River near Acco, on this very coast. The Phoenician coast nearby was famous for purple dye made from murex shellfish.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 33:19 וּשְׂפוּנֵ֖י and hidden [things] of

    They will call the peoples to a mountain; there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness. For they will feast on the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.”

    Here: "And the covered things of". This rare root appears only here. It names riches covered over and stored away.

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