ישב

Forms

יָשַׁב (yāšaḇ) verb^[4][1] Qal (about 770 times): perfect יָשַׁב, imperfect יֵשֵׁב, וַיֵּשֶׁב, imperative שֵׁב, infinitive construct שֶׁבֶת, participle יֹשֵׁב; niphal נוֹשְׁבָה “to be inhabited”, piel, hiphil הוֹשִׁיב “to cause to sit or dwell”, hophal הוּשַׁב.^[5][1] In all, 1,076 occurrences in MACULA's count.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *wṯb (“to sit”), one of the basic verbs of Proto-Semitic, the Hebrew verb coming from an earlier *waṯaba.^[6][7] HALOT gives the basic form with /ṯ/, and the cognates show the old consonant: Ugaritic yṯb (“to sit down, take the throne, reside”),^[8][5] Aramaic יְתֵב (yəṯēḇ), Classical Syriac ܝܬܒ (yiteḇ),^[1][9] Akkadian wašābu,^[6][10] and Sabaean wṯb (“to dwell”).^[6][2] It is also Phoenician yšb, used in the Kilamuwa inscription for taking the father's throne,^[11][5] and the Mesha inscription uses it of dwelling in a land.^[1]

Arabic has وَثَبَ (waṯaba, “to leap, jump”), and the sense “to sit” only in Himyarite words, which Kogan traces to a South Arabian substrate;^[6][12] the Proto-Semitic root left no ordinary reflex in Arabic.^[6][12] Ge'ez አውሰበ (ʾawsaba, “to take a wife, marry”) is usually compared, a comparison Kogan finds plausible;^[6][13][10] Klein explains it as “to cause to dwell”.^[6][13][10] Klein and Gesenius–Buhl add that an Egyptian word for “throne” is a Semitic loanword.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is in the archaic poems that Sáenz-Badillos lists: the Song of the Sea speaks of yōšəḇê pəlāšeṯ and yōšəḇê ḵənāʿan, “the dwellers in Philistia, in Canaan” (Exodus 15:14–15), and the Song of Deborah asks why Asher yāšaḇ ləḥôp̄ yammîm, “sat idle by the shore of the sea” (Judges 5:17).^[4][5][14] These poems are archaic in language, not dated records.^[14] The earliest dated Hebrew text with the verb is a literary ostracon from Ḥorvat ʿUza of the mid or late 7th century BC, which speaks of šbtk, “your sitting” or “dwelling”.^[15] An Arad letter of the 6th century BC ends hʾ yšb, “he is staying”, after a mention of the house of YHWH.^[16][17]

Semantic evolution

HALOT orders the qal as “to sit down”, “to sit”, “to remain” and “to dwell”, the last two growing out of the first.^[5] One sat at a table or presided at court;^[5] God is yōšēḇ hakkərûḇîm, “enthroned on the cherubim” (1 Samuel 4:4), and a king “sits on the throne”, an idiom shared with Akkadian.^[5] To sit was also to lie in wait, to remain at home, to stay, and to dwell in a place, so that the participle yōšēḇ came to mean an inhabitant and a city or land “sits”, that is, is inhabited.^[5][1] The hiphil “to cause to dwell” was also used for giving a home to a foreign woman, to marry her;^[5] HALOT records this only in Ezra and Nehemiah.^[5] The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek κατοικέω (katoikéō) “to dwell” and καθίζω (kathízō) “to sit”.^[4]

The Dead Sea Scrolls use it 654 times.^[18] Its derivatives reached English: moshav, from מוֹשָׁב (môšāḇ, “seat, dwelling”), and yeshiva, from yəšîḇâ “sitting, session”, which HALOT notes in Rabbinic and Modern Hebrew as a session or an academy.^[7][5] Modern Hebrew ישב (yasháv) means “to sit” and “to dwell”.^[19]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – yōšəḇê ḵənāʿan in the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:15) and yāšaḇ ləḥôp̄ yammîm in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:17).^[14][4]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 430 occurrences in Genesis to Kings, beginning in the canon with Cain, who wayyēšeḇ bəʾereṣ-nôḏ, “settled in the land of Nod” (Genesis 4:16).^[4]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – the hiphil “to marry (a foreign woman)” in Ezra 10 and Nehemiah 13.^[5]
• Mid or late 7th century BC – šbtk in the Ḥorvat ʿUza ostracon.^[15]
• 6th century BC – hʾ yšb in a letter from Arad.^[16][17]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek κατοικέω (katoikéō) and καθίζω (kathízō).^[20][4]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 654 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[21][18]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to sit down; to sit, be seated; to be in session.^[5][1]
2. qal to sit on a throne, to reign; of God, to be enthroned.^[5]
3. qal to sit in ambush, lie in wait.^[5]
4. qal to remain, stay; to stay at home.^[5]
5. qal to dwell, live in a place; participle: an inhabitant.^[5][1]
6. qal (of a city or land) to be inhabited.^[5]
7. hiphil to seat, set on a throne; to settle people in a place;^[5] (late) to marry a foreign woman.^[5]

Word family

• מוֹשָׁב (môšāḇ)
• שֶׁבֶת (šeḇeṯ)
• תּוֹשָׁב (tôšāḇ)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew ישב (yasháv)^[19]

Usage notes

MACULA gives a few single occurrences other numbers: a name in 2 Samuel 23:8, forms of this verb in Isaiah 52:2, Lamentations 3:63 and Obadiah 3, and forms like those of שׁוּב (šûḇ, “to return”) in 2 Samuel 15:8 and Zechariah 10:6, where HALOT too reads šûḇ.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ 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. יָשַׁב
2. ^ a b c Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. ישׁב
3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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. ישׁב
6. ^ a b c d e f g Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 261
7. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. wṯb
8. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. y-ṯ-b
9. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 232
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. ישׁב
11. ^ Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), Phoenician-Punic Dictionary, Leuven: Peeters (OLA 90), p. s.v. y-š-b
12. ^ a b Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 2920
13. ^ a b Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 619
14. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
15. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 37.006.7
16. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 2.018.10
17. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 77
18. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
19. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
20. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
21. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143