Hebrew word · H8292
שְׁרִיקָה
sherikot
piping
A whistle or piping sound. It comes from the verb šāraq, 'to whistle'. The verb is used of God whistling to summon nations (Isa 5:26; 7:18; Zech 10:8) and of onlookers whistling at a ruin (1 Kgs 9:8; Jer 19:8; 49:17; 50:13; Lam 2:15; Zeph 2:15).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
piping, whistling, hissing
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 Jeremiah 18:16
- Range of meaning
A whistle or piping sound. It comes from the verb šāraq, 'to whistle'. The verb is used of God whistling to summon nations (Isa 5:26; 7:18; Zech 10:8) and of onlookers whistling at a ruin (1 Kgs 9:8; Jer 19:8; 49:17; 50:13; Lam 2:15; Zeph 2:15). The noun appears only here and in Judges 5:16, of shepherds' piping for the flocks. The related noun šᵊrēqāh (Jer 19:8; 25:9, 18; 29:18) means 'an object of whistling'.
- Against the English
KJV 'hissing' and ESV 'hissed at' suggest a snake's hiss or an audience booing. BSB 'object of scorn' and NIV 'lasting scorn' read the sound purely as contempt. The Hebrew names a sound, a sharp whistle, and the setting decides whether it expresses shock, derision or both.
- How it drifted
'Hissing' comes through the Latin Vulgate's sibilus (a hiss or whistle) into the English Bible tradition. Modern English 'hiss' mostly means snakes, steam, or booing a villain.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In Lam 2:15 passers-by 'clap their hands... whistle and wag their heads' at ruined Jerusalem, a clear scene of taunting. In 1 Kgs 9:8 and Jer 19:8 the whistle goes with being appalled, which points to shock. Some interpreters suggest that whistling at a cursed site may also have been a gesture to keep the disaster away from oneself. That idea is possible but not directly attested in the Bible.
Where it appears
Judges · 1
-
Judges 5:16 שְׁרִק֣וֹת [the] whistling of
Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.
Jeremiah · 1
-
Jeremiah 18:16 שְׁרִיק֣וֹת whistling of
They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
Here: 'Whistlings (of)'. The plural suggests whistle after whistle from passers-by: a sharp whistle of shock at the ruin, with an edge of mockery. The same noun is used in Judges 5:16 for shepherds piping to their flocks.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.