אזל

Forms

אָזַל (ʾāzal) verb^[3] Qal only: perfect אָזַל, אָזְלַת, אָזְלוּ; imperfect תֵּזְלִי for תֵּאזְלִי (Jeremiah 2:36); participle אֹזֵל.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is the common Aramaic verb for “to go”, borrowed from Aramaic אֲזַל (ʾăzal, “to go”): HALOT, following Wagner, lists the Hebrew verb as an Aramaism.^[4][3] The Aramaic verb is attested from Old Aramaic, in the Sefire treaty, and continues in Biblical, Jewish and Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Classical Syriac ܐܙܠ (ʾezal, “to go”).^[5][4][6] Kogan calls its origin uncertain, but does not rule out a link with a two-consonant element *zl “to move”.^[5] Gesenius–Buhl and Klein compare Arabic أَزَلِيّ (ʾazaliyy, “long since past, eternal”) and زَالَ (zāla, “to go away”).^[7][8] Sáenz-Badillos notes that Aramaisms occur in ancient poetic texts as well as in the late books.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use in the canon is in the Song of Moses, one of the poems that Sáenz-Badillos counts as archaic: God will have pity on his servants kî yirʾeh kî-ʾāzəlaṯ yāḏ “when he sees that their strength is gone” (Deuteronomy 32:36).^[10][1][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used four times, for something that runs out or goes away.^[1][4] Saul tells his servant halleḥem ʾāzal mikkēlênû “the bread is gone from our bags” (1 Samuel 9:7); in Job 14:11 water vanishes from the sea; and in Proverbs 20:14 the buyer who complained of the price wəʾōzēl lô “goes off” and then boasts.^[3][4][1] BDB also takes Jeremiah 2:36 as “to go about”, where HALOT reads another verb.^[3][4] The Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek ἐκλείπω (ekleípō, “to fail”) and Ancient Greek παραλύω (paralúō, “to weaken”).^[1]

The Biblical Aramaic verb of the same spelling, ʾăzal, means “to go” in Ezra and Daniel.^[1][7] Most of the 66 cases of the root in the Dead Sea Scrolls are in the Aramaic texts, above all the Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20).^[11] In the Aramaic of the Talmud ʾăzal means “to go” and also “to die”.^[12] Modern Hebrew אזל (azál) means “to run out”, and Klein records the back-formation ʾēzel “helplessness” from ʾāzəlaṯ yāḏ.^[13][14]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – ʾāzəlaṯ yāḏ in the Song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32:36.^[10][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 1 Samuel 9:7.^[1]
• Poetic books – Job 14:11 and Proverbs 20:14.^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it with Ancient Greek ἐκλείπω (ekleípō) and Ancient Greek παραλύω (paralúō).^[15][1]
• Modern Hebrew – azál “to run out”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal: to be exhausted, used up, gone;^[13] ʾāzəlaṯ yāḏ “strength is gone”.^[4][3]
2. qal: to go away, disappear.^[4][3]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew אזל (azál)^[13]

Usage notes

HALOT and BDB read the name-like hāʾeḇen hāʾāzel of 1 Samuel 20:19 as a corrupt text for hallāz “that”.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אָזַל
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אזל
5. ^ a b Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 379
6. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 24
7. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. אזל
8. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אזל
9. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 128
10. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
11. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
12. ^ Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. אֲזַל
13. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
14. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אֵזֶל
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
16. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אֶזֶל
17. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אֶזֶל