Bible Geek Word Nerd - Say #3 - SIACH

Maybe We Complain Too Much - Say #3

July 12, 2022

“…or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.”

Job 12:8

 

Job and his friends did a lot of talking. They pontificated about Job and the causes of his calamity. (Oh, that word! A wonderfully evocative word… In Hebrew, eight words can be rendered – and often are rendered by translators – as the English word “calamity”. Seven are found in Job, but not always translated as “calamity”. We’re thinking that a future series will take on calamity. But we digress.) They do a lot of talking, as well as talking about talking, as the verse we’ve cited above.

 

Here is Job 12:8 in Hebrew:

 

או שיח לארץ ותרך ויספרו לך דגי הים

 

The word in question is the second one in the clause: “speak”. It is SIACH (שיח) in Hebrew.

As a verb, it occurs 21 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. You will find it in Judges 5:10, at the conclusion of the terrific story of Deborah and Barak (though she and Jael are the stars): “You who ride on white donkeys, sitting on your saddle blankets, and you who walk along the road, CONSIDER…”

 

SIACH also features in 1 Chronicles 16:9 (interestingly, also a poem or song, which perhaps gives us a hint of how and why this word is used), “Sing to him, sing praise to him; TELL of all his wonderful acts.”

 

 

 

SIACH fundamentally means to “muse, ponder, or meditate”. But like many Hebrew words, it is richly nuanced with other connotations. It also means: complain, declare, speak, pray, and talk with. If you do an Internet search on SIACH, you will see many uses of the word emphasizing “dialog” or “conversation” (maybe thoughtful debate). For instance, MACHON SIACH is a high school dedicated to producing public intellectuals who engage in the weighty cultural matters of our time. The SIACH network of hazon.org “aims to create an open dialog” about environmental and social justice issues (that sounds pretty weighty). Siach.org, the home of Yeshivat Siach-Yitzhak, expresses “ardent interest in promoting dialogue between the Torah world and its social, cultural, and religious milieu”. And “Siach Yitzchok” is a primary school whose approach focuses on “nurturing the neshama, or the soul” of the child. As a final example, SIACH (used as an acronym for Students from Israel & Abroad Chat) aims “to build and strengthen relationships between Jewish young adults in Israel and around the world.” (To complicate this further, SIACH in modern use is also a small bush or shrub, which features in siach.online’s logo, as well as others’ logos.)

 

So this brings us back to how SIACH shows itself in the Text.

 

SIACH is used in the Psalms 14 times, which comprises two-thirds of its 21 occurrences. The NIV almost always translates it as “meditate”, which we do not hate…except that our modern English idea of mediation is solitary, quiet, and introspective. That is decidedly not the Jewish idea of meditation. 

 

You only need to consider (are we using SIACH there?) another word used for “meditate” in the Hebrew scriptures: HAGAH (הָגָה). Besides meaning meditate or muse (like SIACH), it more fundamentally means “growl” and “moan”, as in Isaiah 31:4: “This is what the Lord says to me: ‘As a lion GROWLS, a great lion over its prey – and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against it, it is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamour – so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights.”

 

The Jewish idea of “muse” and “meditate”, whether the verb is HAGAH or SIACH, is likely not meant to be quiet or introspective (there is a place for that in Hebrew, but it is not here with these words). The fact that SIACH can be translated as “meditate” in 14 of its 21 uses, but “complain” or “speak” or even “mock” amongst the others definitely signals that there is more to the story than a simple word-for-word translation.

 

Hebrew is rich and complex and beautiful. And patiently SIACHing through the Text, allowing G-d to speak through His RUACH HA’QODESH, will open your eyes to vast treasures of diamonds lying there waiting to be discovered.