Hebrew word · H8338

שִׁשֵּׁא

veshishetikha

to lead

This word occurs only once in the Bible. BDB and HALOT give "lead on" or "drive along" with a question mark. None is certain.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) (Piel) to lead, lead on

2a) meaning apparent

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 39:2

Range of meaning

This word occurs only once in the Bible. BDB and HALOT give "lead on" or "drive along" with a question mark. Proposed explanations include a link to a word for "walk" in a related Semitic language, a variant of a verb meaning "deceive/lure" (nasha/hissi), or a word made up to sound like the verbs around it. None is certain.

Against the English

BSB says "drive you along" and WEB "lead you on." The ESV and NASB say "drive you forward/on," the NIV "drag you along," and YLT "enticed thee." The KJV's "leave but the sixth part of thee" is an outlier. It treats the word as related to shesh ("six"). The KJV margin itself offers alternatives ("strike thee with six plagues" or "draw thee back with an hook of six teeth"), which shows the translators knew it was a guess.

How it drifted

Medieval Jewish and Reformation-era interpreters connected the word to the number six because of its sound. That guess reached English through the Geneva Bible and then the KJV. The ancient versions do not support it.

Used elsewhere in the period

The LXX has kathodēgēsō ("I will guide you"). The Vulgate has seducam ("I will lead you away" or "lead you astray"). These very early readings agree with the context: four verbs in a row describing God moving Gog from place to place.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 39:2 וְשִׁשֵּׁאתִ֔יךָ and I will lead on you

    I will turn you around, drive you along, bring you up from the far north, and send you against the mountains of Israel.

    Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. Its meaning is guessed from context and from the earliest translations, which read it as "lead/guide." It continues the picture of God moving Gog wherever he wants.

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