Hebrew word · H8295

שָׂרַט

yisretu

to incise

To cut, gash or scratch the skin. The noun is the gash itself. The word is rare: the verb appears here and in Zech 12:3 ('be severely injured'), and the nouns appear here and in Lev 19:28 (śereṭ lānep̄eš, 'a gash for the dead').

Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to incise, scratch, tattoo, cut

1a) (Qal) to make incision

1b) (Niphal) to be scratched or lacerated, be cut

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 Leviticus 21:5

Range of meaning

To cut, gash or scratch the skin. The noun is the gash itself. The word is rare: the verb appears here and in Zech 12:3 ('be severely injured'), and the nouns appear here and in Lev 19:28 (śereṭ lānep̄eš, 'a gash for the dead').

Against the English

KJV/NASB 'cuttings in their flesh' and BSB 'cuts in their bodies' are accurate. Readers today sometimes hear it as a general ban on body modification, or on self-harm in the modern clinical sense.

How it drifted

Modern debates over tattoos, piercing and self-harm have pulled this verse and Lev 19:28 into topics they were not written about. The Hebrew names a specific ritual: gashing the body in grief or worship.

Used elsewhere in the period

Other verbs for the same practice include gādad, used of the prophets of Baal who 'cut themselves with swords and lances' (1 Kgs 18:28; also Deut 14:1; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5). In the Ugaritic Baal myth (KTU 1.5 VI), the god El, mourning Baal, 'gashes his cheeks and chin… plows his chest like a garden', and the goddess Anat does the same (KTU 1.6 I). Mishnah Makkot 3:6 treats 'cutting for the dead' as a punishable offence.

From the study of Zechariah 12:3

Range of meaning

śāraṭ = to scratch, incise, gash the skin. Elsewhere it is used for ritual cutting of the flesh in mourning (Lev 21:5; noun śereṭ Lev 19:28). Here it is in the niphal (passive/reflexive), 'be gashed, lacerate oneself', strengthened by an infinitive absolute (the verb doubled for emphasis): 'they will be badly torn'.

Against the English

KJV 'shall be cut in pieces' overstates it into dismemberment. YLT 'completely pressed down' misses the cutting idea altogether. BSB/WEB/NASB 'severely injured/wounded' and ESV 'surely hurt themselves' are closer.

How it drifted

The KJV's 'cut in pieces' (following the Vulgate's concisione lacerabuntur, 'will be torn with cutting') turned a picture of self-inflicted scrapes and strain into one of nations being hacked apart by God.

Used elsewhere in the period

HALOT and BDB both give 'incise, scratch, lacerate'. The Leviticus uses confirm the idea of cuts in the skin, not cutting into pieces.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 21:5 יִשְׂרְט֖וּ they will cut

    Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies.

    Here: 'They shall incise': to cut or scratch the skin on purpose. This is a rare verb. Elsewhere it means being badly cut or wounded (Zech 12:3).

Zechariah · 2

  1. Zechariah 12:3 שָׂר֣וֹט יִשָּׂרֵ֑טוּ severely <injure>, they will injure themselves

    On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured.

    Here: An infinitive placed before its own verb for emphasis: 'gashing they will be gashed' = they will be badly cut and scraped.

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