Hebrew word · H99
אָגֵם
'agmei-
grieved
Grieved, sad. This adjective appears only here in the Bible. Its meaning comes from the related verb in Job 30:25 ('agmah nafshi, 'my soul grieved,' spelled with ayin) and from Aramaic and later Hebrew usage of the same root.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
stagnant pond
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 19:10
- Range of meaning
Grieved, sad. This adjective appears only here in the Bible. Its meaning comes from the related verb in Job 30:25 ('agmah nafshi, 'my soul grieved,' spelled with ayin) and from Aramaic and later Hebrew usage of the same root.
- Against the English
'Sick at heart' (BSB, NIV), 'grieved in soul' (WEB, NASB), 'afflicted in soul' (YLT). KJV's 'ponds for fish' takes the word as אֲגַם, 'pool, marsh' (as in Isaiah 14:23; 35:7), and nefesh as 'living creatures,' meaning fish.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Job 30:25 is the closest parallel. The confusion with 'agam, 'pool,' is old: the Vulgate's 'pools for catching fish' (lacunas ad capiendos pisces) is where the KJV wording comes from.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 19:10 אַגְמֵי־ [will be] grieved of
The workers in cloth will be dejected, and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.
Here: 'Grieved of …'. This adjective appears only here. It is almost certainly related to the verb in Job 30:25, 'my soul grieved' (spelled with a different first letter). The Vulgate and KJV instead read a similar-looking noun meaning 'pools, marshes.'
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.