Hebrew word · H8663

תְּשֻׁאָה

teshu'ot

shout

Loud noise of many kinds: the shouting of a crowd, the yelling of a driver at animals, the crash of thunder, a cry of acclaim. The word describes how loud something is. It does not say whether the mood is happy or panicked.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

noise, clamour

Also means: sha.vah (שָׁוָה "storm" H7738)

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 Isaiah 22:2

Range of meaning

Loud noise of many kinds: the shouting of a crowd, the yelling of a driver at animals, the crash of thunder, a cry of acclaim. The word describes how loud something is. It does not say whether the mood is happy or panicked.

Against the English

KJV 'stirs' (archaic for commotion); WEB/ESV-type 'shouting/shoutings'; BSB folds it into 'commotion'. 'Shouting' is closest. 'Commotion' loses the human voices.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 39:7 (the wild donkey ignores 'the shouts of the driver'); Job 36:29 (the 'thunderings' of God's pavilion); Zech 4:7 ('with shouts of "Grace, grace!"'), a festive acclamation. The usage shows the word fits both noise and celebration.

From the study of Zechariah 4:7

Range of meaning

Noise, loud din, roar, shouting. Used of a city in uproar (Isaiah 22:2), of thunder (Job 36:29), and of a driver's shouts (Job 39:7).

Against the English

"Shouts"/"shoutings" is accurate. English cannot easily show that the word stands without a preposition ("shouts" works almost like an adverb: "to a roar of ...").

Used elsewhere in the period

Compare Ezra 3:10-13: when the foundation of this same Second Temple was laid, the people raised a great shout (teru'ah, a related idea) mixed with the weeping of those who remembered the first temple, "and the sound was heard far away."

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 36:29 תְּ֝שֻׁא֗וֹת [the] crashes of

    Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

  2. Job 39:7 תְּשֻׁא֥וֹת [the] shouting<s> of

    He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 22:2 תְּשֻׁא֣וֹת׀ noises

    O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.

    Here: Plural: a whole soundscape of yelling and noise. It is put first for emphasis, so the oracle opens with the sound of the city before anything else is said.

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 4:7 תְּשֻׁא֕וֹת shouting<s>

    What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. Then he will bring forth the capstone accompanied by shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”

    Here: "With shouts". A loud, crowd-sized noise; elsewhere it describes a city full of tumult (Isaiah 22:2) and thunder (Job 36:29). The plural pictures repeated acclamation.

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