Skip to content

shebanq

סָעִיף sāʿīp – cleft, branch, crutch

Semantic Fields: Utensils   
Author(s): W.A.M. Beuken
First published: 2011-03-24
Last update: 2025-10-10
Citation: W.A.M. Beuken, סָעִיף sāʿīp – cleft, branch, crutch,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2011 (update: 2025) (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Introduction

Grammatical type: noun masc.

Occurrences: 1 (6)x HB (0/1 (6)/0); 0x Sir; 0x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 1 (6))

  • Nebiim: Judg 15:8, 11; 1 Kgs 18:21; Isa 2:21; 17:6; 27:10; 57:5.

A.1 As a designation of a utensil the word is thought to occur only in 1 Kgs 18:21: ‘How long will you go limping on two crutches?’ If so, it seems likely that it it is identical or closely related to סָעִיף ‘1. cleft; 2. branch, bough’ (see below). The traditional translation, however, runs: ‘How long will you go limping with two different opinions?’ (e.g. σ´, Vg, Luther, KJV, ASV, RSV, JPS, NIV) and this expression has become proverbial in many languages.

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 Root. Klein s.v. סָעִיף assumes the following meanings for Biblical Hebrew: 1. cleft. 2. branch, bough, but s.v. סָעֵף ‘division, divided opinion’ he appears to be reluctant to connect the two.1 From early times on scholars have compared שְׂעִפִּּים in Job 4:13 (see also 21:2) which is supposed to mean ‘opinions, disquieting thoughts’.2 Subsequently it seemed admissable to regard סַרְעַפָּּה ‘twig’ (Ezek 31:53) and שַׂרְעַפִּּים ‘disquieting thoughts’ (Ps 94:19; 139:234) as dissimilated forms of the same root. See also סֵעֲפִים (Ps 119:113), usually translated ‘double-minded men’.
It is indeed possible that √sʿp, dissimilated √srʿp // √śʿp, dissimilated √śrʿp, and Arab. √šʿb (see 6. Exegesis) are all variants of the same original √śʿb/p5 with the meaning ‘to branch off, divide into two directions’.

A.2 Syriac. sarʿef ‘to branch out’, sarefītā ‘branches, a branching out, fork; layers, suckers’;6 sūrʿāfā ‘a branch, subdivision, ramification’.7

A.3 Old Arabic. Perhaps Sabaean √šʿb, ‘tribal group, community’.8

A.4 Classical Arabic. šaʿb ‘collection, separation, division, branch, crack, tribe’;9 šuʿbat ‘space between two things, cleft, branch growing out apart’, and also: ‘a staff having at his head two forking portions or projections’10, discussed above. Less likely saʿaf ‘palm-branches’.11 See also Palestinian Arabic šaʿbe ‘Gabelhölzer’.12

2. Formal Characteristics

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

3. Syntagmatics

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

4. Ancient Versions

The versions mirror the exegetical impasse of modern times.

a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek versions (αʹ, σʹ, θʹ):

  • ἰγνύα, ‘the part behind the thigh and knee’:13 1 Kgs 18:21. a word for a body part: ‘the part behind the thigh and knee, ham’. This results in the translation: ‘to halt on both feet’. σ´ has ἀμφιβόλος, ‘doubt, uncertainty of mind’.
  • κλάδος, ‘branch’: Isa 17:6;
  • ὀπή, ‘cave’, etc.: Judg 15:11;
  • σχισμή, ‘split’: Isa 2:21;
  • χείμαρρος, ‘brook’: Judg 15:8;

Isa 27:10? Isa 57:5?

b. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • ܦܠܓܘܬܐ (pelgūṯā), ‘half, part’ or ܦܠܓܘܬܐ (pālgūtā), ‘part, division, duplicity’:14 1 Kgs 18:21.

c. Targum (Tg):

  • פלגותא ‘half, division’: 1 Kgs 18:21;
  • שְׁקֵיף ‘cliff?’: Judg 15:8, 11; Isa 2:21; 57:5.

d. Vulgate (Vg):

  • Like Tg and Pesh, Vg has interpreted the term as an abstract noun: ‘Usquequo claudicatis in duas partes?’

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

A.1 [Discussion will be added later.]

6. Exegesis

6.1 Literal Use

A.1 If the word is indeed identical or closely related to סָעִיף ‘1. cleft; 2. branch, bough’ (see below), the literal use is attested 6 times in the Nebiim.

6.2 Figurative Use

A.1 The meaning of the word in 1 Kgs 18:21 is unclear due to the problems of the context. ‘Crutches (made from branches)’ was proposed by Joüon and again by Keel, as fitting the traditional meaning of the verb פסח in the sense of ‘to limp’.16 The question would refer to a proverb which uses ‘crutches’ in a metaphorical way and denunciates the attitude of making no choice, while the crutches, in this case, would point to the deities involved, i.e. Yhwh and Baal. Since Yhwh could indeed be designated as a supporting staff (→ מַשְׁעֵן) the prophet’s criticism is directed not towards the use of supporting staffs as such, but to the fact that two unequal crutches are used.

A.2 De Vaux, however, would see here a reference to the ritual dance performed in honour of Baal (cf. 1 Kgs 19:18: ‘bending the knee to Baal’; cf. 4.a. Septuagint).16 Gerleman, on the contrary, basing himself on a different meaning of the verb פסח, namely as ‘to strike against violently, to rebound’, returned more or less to the traditional interpretation of סְעִפִּּים as an abstract noun: ‘sides, alternatives’.17 The prophet would reproach the Israelites to rebound against both Yhwh and Baal so much so as to be repudiated by both deities.

König has a fairly elaborate paragraph on this lemma:
סְעִפִּּים: f. 1 K 1821 (267 [= Hist. Komp. Lehrg., Bd. 2, 67], zusammenhängend mit סעף (ar. šá,̓aba, fidit), nicht
1) ‘‘Kniekehlen’’ (LXX: ἰγνύαι; Ges.-B.), denn da würde der Dual erwartet werden. 2) Bei ‘‘Krückstöcke’’ (Joüon 08336: ‘‘les deux béquilles’’) würde das Attribut ‘‘beide’’ in jener Frage fast unsinnig sein. Oder sollten sie künftig auf einem ‘‘Krückstock’’ hinken? Auch passt die Fortsetzung dann nicht recht. 3) Dazu stimmt aber ‘‘Spaltung: Seite’’ sehr gut, und ‘‘Seite’’ ist kein ‘‘Abstractum’’, sodass das genus (Albrecht, ZATW 1675) auffallend genannt werden müsste.18

A.3 If it is admissable - and it is19 - to compare Arab. √šaʿaba, ‘to collect, separate, divide’, it would also be possible to point to the Arab. noun šuʿbat, ‘space between two things, cleft, branch growing out apart’, and also: ‘a staff having at his head two forking portions or projections’.20 Such staffs with forked upper ends might well have served as crutches supporting a person under the armpits.21 The advantage of this solution is that it is in line with the meaning of the existing Hebrew nouns סָעִיף, 1. cleft; 2. branch, bough’, and סְעַפָּּה, ‘bough, branch’, as well as the denominative verb √סעף Pi., ‘to lop off boughs’. The gemination of the פ in סְּעִפִּּים is no obstacle to this explanation.22 For further cognates see 1. Root and Comparative Material.

6.3 Archaeology

A.1 [Discussion Will be added later.]

7. Conclusion

A.1 On the somewhat uncertain basis of etymological comparison the meaning ‘crutch’ seems acceptable. Other proposals that have found some support from the ancient versions are ‘part’, ‘side’ and ‘uncertainty, divided opinion’, but all these alternatives seem to have been inspired by the same root ‘to branch off, divide in two parts’.

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

See in addition to the literature cited with → מַטֶּה:

BDB, 704: ‘divided opinion’

DCH, vol. 6, 175: various options

De Vaux 1941
R. de Vaux, ‘Les prophétes de Baal sur le Mont Carmel’, BMB 5 (1941), 1-20

GB, 548: ‘Teilungen, Krücken’

Gerleman: 1976
G. Gerleman, ‘Was heißt פסח?, ZAW 88 (1976), 409-413, esp. 411f.
Gese 1997
H. Gese, in: J. Ådna et al (eds), Evangelium, Schriftauslegung, Kirche: Festschrift für Peter Stuhlmacher, Göttingen 1997, 133-4, n. 22
Gray 1970
J. Gray, I & II Kings: A Commentary (OTL), London 21970, 396, after discussing several options: ‘crutches’

HAHAT, 894-5: s.v. סָעִיף: ‘1. Felsspalt, Felsenkluft ... 2. Zweig, Ast’, but s.v. סְעִפִּּים the authors merely mention some previous proposals

HALAT, 719: ‘Krücken’

HAWAT, 305: ‘Spaltung: Seite’ (see 6. Exegesis)

HCHAT, Bd. 2, 89-90: ‘Seite’, but preferably ‘Kniekehle’

HWAT, 464: ‘gewöhnl. geteilte Meinungen übersetzt, vgl. שְׂעִפִּּים’ (thoughts)

Joüon 1908
P. Joüon, ‘Notes de lexicographie hébraïque’, MUSJ 3 (1908), 336

KBL, 663: ‘Krücken’

Keel 1972
O. Keel, ‘Erwägungen zum Sitz im Leben des vormosaischen Pascha und zur Etymologie von פסח’, ZAW 84 (1972) 414-34, esp. 428

LHA, 558: ‘ramificationes, opiniones divisae’

MHH, 760: מפרשים: חלוקה מחשבה ,ברירה

Thiehl 2002
W. Thiel, Könige (BK 9/2/2), Neukirchen 2002, 143-8, after discussing a large number of options: ‘Krücken’

Gesenius, Roediger, TPC, 963: ‘partes, opiniones divisae’.

  1. Klein, CEDHL, 452. ↩

  2. See e.g. HWAT, 464. ↩

  3. Cf. HAHAT, 903. ↩

  4. Cf. Clines 1989, 111. ↩

  5. Cf. SLOGC, §§ 16.1-6, 20. ↩

  6. Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 392. ↩

  7. Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 371. ↩

  8. Beeston, SD, 130-1; Biella, DOSA, 520. See also the modern South Arabic cognates cited by Leslau, ESAC, 37; HAHAT, 903. ↩

  9. Lane, AEL, vol. 4, 1556. ↩

  10. Lane, AEL, vol. 4, 1556. ↩

  11. Lane, AEL, vol. 4, 1365. ↩

  12. Dalman, AuS, Bd. 3, 241. ↩

  13. GELS, 336. ↩

  14. Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 447. ↩

  15. Joüon 1908; Keel 1972. ↩

  16. De Vaux 1941. ↩

  17. Gerleman 1976. ↩

  18. König, HAWAT, 305. ↩

  19. Cf. SLOGC, §§ 11.4, 14.2-5, 16.5; HAHAT, 894. ↩

  20. Lane, AEL, vol. 4, 1556. ↩

  21. Cf. Joüon and Keel. ↩

  22. Cf. GBH § 18d-g. ↩

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database