בַּד

From the study of Isaiah 44:25

Range of meaning

A noun meaning idle talk, empty boasting, prattle (Isaiah 16:6; Jeremiah 48:30; Job 11:3). The plural can refer to people characterised by it: 'babblers, empty talkers'. It is a separate word from the homonyms bad 'linen' and bad 'pole/part'.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/ESV 'liars', BSB/NIV 'false prophets', NASB 'boasters', YLT 'devisers'. 'Liars' suggests deliberate deceit. 'False prophets' suggests Israelite prophets gone wrong. The Hebrew points instead to hollow, overconfident talk, meaning the pronouncements of professional forecasters.

How it drifted

Translators have tried to make an obscure word concrete. 'False prophets' brings in an Israelite category, when the people in view are almost certainly Babylonian omen-specialists.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 50:36, in the oracle against Babylon: 'A sword against the baddîm, and they will become fools', in a list with Babylon's officials, wise men and warriors. That is a very close parallel in subject and setting. The Greek Septuagint renders the word here as engastrimythoi, 'ventriloquists, mediums'.

From the study of Isaiah 16:6

Range of meaning

Empty or idle talk, bluster, boasting. It is usually linked with the verb bada', 'to invent, make up' (1 Kings 12:33; Nehemiah 6:8), so it means talk that is made up and has no basis. In Job 11:3 it is 'babble'. In Isaiah 44:25 and Jeremiah 50:36 baddim are people who talk emptily: false oracle-givers or boasters.

Against the English

KJV: 'lies'. YLT: 'devices'. WEB: 'boastings'. NASB and BSB: 'idle boasts' and 'boasting'. 'Lies' is too narrow and too moral. The point is less deliberate lying than big talk with no substance: claims to strength, security and importance that reality will not support.

How it drifted

KJV's 'lies' (and its added 'shall not be so') points readers toward deceit. The Hebrew points to hollow, inflated speech.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 48:30, the parallel, reads lo-khen baddav, lo-khen ʿasu: 'his empty talk is not right, (and) not right is what they do'. The Septuagint's reading 'divination' (mantia) reflects the use of baddim for diviners in Isaiah 44:25. Moabite royal boasting has a real example in the Mesha Stele (c. 840 BC), where King Mesha lists in the first person the cities he took and built.

From the study of Jeremiah 50:36

Range of meaning

Hebrew dictionaries list several words spelled בד. One means 'part, limb, pole' and another 'linen.' The one here means 'empty talk, idle boasting' (BDB בַּד III). In the plural it names the people who talk that way: babblers, braggarts, people who spout oracles. HALOT tentatively suggests 'oracle-priests' for Isaiah 44:25 and this verse.

Against the English

KJV has 'liars' and WEB 'boasters,' both close to the root idea of empty speech. BSB (like several modern versions) has 'false prophets,' and ESV 'diviners'; both identify who is meant. NASB's 'oracle priests' brings out the Babylonian institution. YLT's 'princes' seems to come from the other word bad, 'pole/branch' (pictured as a support), and has little support.

How it drifted

'False prophets' suggests Israel's own prophetic world, or later Christian ideas about false teachers. The text is about foreign religious professionals reading omens, and the Hebrew word itself is mockery ('blather-men'), not a technical term.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 44:25 is the closest parallel. The LORD 'frustrates the signs of the baddim and makes fools of diviners' (קֹסְמִים יְהוֹלֵל). Isaiah 16:6 and Jeremiah 48:30 use the word for Moab's 'empty boasts.' Job 11:3 uses it for 'babblings.' In Babylon the bārû priest read the gods' will from sheep livers, oil on water and the stars. Large cuneiform omen collections, and Ezekiel 21:21 (Nebuchadnezzar consulting a liver at a crossroads), show how central these men were to war.