Hebrew word · H958

בָּזָא

baze'u

to divide

Found only here and in Isa 18:7. Usually explained from an Aramaic verb meaning 'to cleave, split, divide'.

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

What it means

(Qal) to divide, cleave, cut through

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 18:2

Range of meaning

Found only here and in Isa 18:7. Usually explained from an Aramaic verb meaning 'to cleave, split, divide'.

Against the English

Modern versions: 'divide' / 'is divided by rivers'. KJV/YLT: 'have spoiled'.

How it drifted

Older translators linked it to the similar-looking verb bazaz, 'to plunder' (compare the Vulgate's 'diripuerunt', 'they plundered'). That produced KJV 'the rivers have spoiled', i.e. floods have ravaged the land.

Used elsewhere in the period

Cognates in Aramaic and Syriac meaning 'to split' support 'divide'. Geographically, Kush's heartland (around Napata and later Meroë) lies where the Nile, the Blue Nile and the Atbara branch through the land, a region Greek writers later called the 'island' of Meroë.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 18:2 בָּזְא֥וּ they divide

    which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.

    Here: "Divide". A rare verb found only here and in verse 7, explained from an Aramaic verb meaning 'to split'. The rivers cut through the land.

  2. Isaiah 18:7 בָּזְא֤וּ they divide

    At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.

    Here: A verb found only here and in 18:2, probably 'cut through, split'. KJV's 'spoiled' reflects confusion with a similar verb meaning 'plunder'.

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