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צְרֹור ṣerōr – pouch, purse

Semantic Fields: Utensils   
Author(s): Eric G.L. Peels
First published: 2011-05-11
Last update: May 2025 (Marten van Dam)
Citation: Eric G.L. Peels, צְרֹור ṣerōr – pouch, purse,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2011 (update: May 2025 (Marten van Dam)) (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Introduction

Grammatical type: noun masc.
Occurrences: 7x HB (2/2/3); 0x Sir; 0x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 7)

  • Torah: Gen 42:35 (2x)
  • Nebiim: 1 Sam 25:29; Hag 1:6
  • Ketubim: Job 14:17; Prov 7:20; Cant/Song 1:13

Ketiv/ Qere: none.

A.1 Three occurrences of צְרֹור with apparently different meanings are left out of consideration: 1 Sam 9:1; 2 Sam 17:13; Amos 9:9.

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 Semitic. The √צרר with the basic meaning of ‘to be narrow, tight’, and/or transitive ‘to make narrow, tighten’, is attested in many Semitic languages.1

A.2 Akkadian. ārueutel’2 is regarded as a loan from Aramaic by Von Soden, 113 (‘Bündel, Geldbeutel’).

A.3 Ugaritic. Connection with Ugar. ‘peaks, heights’3 is unlikely.

A.4 Postbiblical Hebrew. Levy: ‘Bündel, Päckchen, Beutel’;4 Jastrow ‘knot, bundle, bag’.5

A.5 Jewish Aramaic. Levy: ‘Bündel, Päckchen, Geldbeutel, Geld’;6 Sokoloff: ‘money bag, purse’;7 Sokoloff: ‘bundle, money bag, security money’.8
צְרִירָא: not ‘Bündel, Strauss’9, or ‘handful, bunch’[10], but ‘pouch (for frankincense)’.

A.6 Samaritan Aramaic. צררה, צרירה ‘bundle’, according to Tal,11 but ‘purse’ is just as well possible.

A.7 Syriac. ṣrārā: Payne Smith:12 ‘a bundle, packet, money-bag, purse; a knot, tie’; Costaz:13 ‘bourse, sac, purse, bag’; Sokoloff:14 ‘small packet, purse, bag’; ṣrārōnā ‘small purse, small bag’.15

A.8 Mandaic. ṣraria ‘Geldbeutel’.16

A.9 Classical Arabic. ṣurrat ‘purse for money’;17 ‘petit sachet dans lequel on met la poudre d'or ... [ou] les drogues et les épices dont on se sert pour assaisonner des viandes’ (‘small sachet in which people put gold dust ... [or] drugs and spices which people use for seasoning meat’.18 ṣarīrat ‘coins wrapped in a purse’.19

A.10 Rabbinical literature.

In rabbinic sources the literal meaning of צְרֹור is still attested. The pouch was used to keep precious things like pearls.20 A possible allusion to 1 Sam 25:29 is found in Sir 6:15 (16), אמונה אוהב חיים צרור ‘A faithful friend is a pouch of life’. There is no connotation of future bliss here. In 1QHa 10:20 (22) the singer exults with an obvious allusion to 1 Sam 25:29, החים בצזרור נפשי שמתה כי אדוני אודכה ‘I give you thanks, Lord, because you have put my soul in the pouch of the living’. The context indicates clearly that he feared for his life because ‘vicious men have sought my soul’, so he does not apply this phrase to the afterlife, as was the case in later Judaism (e.g. b. Shab., 152b; b. Ḥag., 12b; b. Meg., 14b; Sifre Num., 139; Deut. R., 10:4; Qoh. R., 3:25; Midr. Ps., 30:3; for an exceptional reference to terrestrial life, cf. Num. R., 11:5). A sixth-century ce Jewish epitaph (CIJ 661:4-5) from Tortosa, Spain, confirms this late interpretation: החיים בצרור נפשה בא ‘May her soul come into the pouch of the living’. The inscription is trilingual. In the shorter Greek and Latin versions this phrase is missing, probably because the translator was unable to render the biblical metaphor for a public unacquainted with its background. On Jewish graves one often finds the abbreviation תנצב׳׳ה which stands for החיים בצרור צרורה נפשו תהי ‘May his soul be bound up in the pouch of the living’.

2. Formal Characteristics

[Discussion will be added later.]

3. Syntagmatics

[Discussion will be added later.]

4. Ancient Versions

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

  • Gen 42:35 ὁ δεσμὸς τοῦ ἀργυρίου ‘the money-girdle’:21 ‘band, bond, bundle’; ‘band, bond’22 (with a wide variety of meanings). ἀλλος: κόμβος, ‘roll, band, girth’.23

  • Also in 1 Sam 25:29, Hag 1:6 and Prov 7:20 LXX has δεσμὸς. The ἀπόδεσμος is also a ‘girdle’.24

  • In Job 14:17 βαλλάντιον ‘bag, purse’25 is preferred. Apparently most of these Greek renderings reflect the Hellenistic world.

b. Samaritan Targum (TgSmr):
* כספיהון צררת ‘their money-purses’.

c. Targum (Tg):

  • Gen 42:35 TgO כספיה צרר ‘his money-purse’; TgN דכספא צררא ‘money-purse’; TgPsJon כספיה קטר ‘the knot with his money’.

  • 1 Sam 25:29 עלמא חיי בגנז ‘in the storehouse of eternal life’, in accordance with the rabbinical interpretation.26

  • Job 14:17 מרודי דוכרניא בספר חתים ‘sealed in the book of records (of) the rebellious’.

  • Prov 7:20 no Tg.

  • Song 1:13: the elaborate paraphrasis connects צְרֹור with the binding of Isaac.

d. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • Gen 42:35 ṣrārā dkaspeh ‘his money-purse’.

  • 1 Sam 25:29 bṣrārā dḥÿê ‘in the pouch of life/the living’.

  • Hag 1:6 ṣrārā nqībā ‘a perforated purse’.

  • Job 14:17 ḥtūm bṣrārā ‘sealed in a purse’.

  • Prov 7:20 ṣrārā dkaspā ‘a money-purse’.

  • Cant/Song 1:13 ṣrārā dmūrā ‘a sachet of myrrh’.

e. Vulgate (Vg):

  • Mostly sacculum ‘small bag’ (Hag 1:6; Job 14:17; Prov 7:20), but fasciculus ‘bundle’ in 1 Sam 25:29 (fasciculum viventium ‘bundle of the living’) and Song 1:13.

  • Gen 42:35 ligatas pecunias ‘the money bound in (the opening of the sacks).

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

[Discussion will be added later.]

6. Exegesis

6.1 Literal Use

A.1 In Gen 42:35 צְרֹור is used twice in the construct state with כֶּסֶף ‘silver, money’ (the second time in double plural27). It is a designation of a kind of money pouch here. Joseph had ordered to put the money with which his brothers had bought grain surreptitiously back into their → שַׂק or → אַמְתַּחַת (Gen 42:25, 27; 43:32; 44:1). Apparently the צְרֹור was smaller than these containers. Every brother - distributive use of אִישׁ - finds his money pouch in his own sack. Apparently it was not unusual to include the purse with the payment. Possibly the latter consisted in small silver bars (German ‘Hacksilber’, a common tender) which were wrapped up in a piece of cloth, the root being צרר, ‘to tie up, bind in, wrap’. צְרֹור ־הַכֶּסֶף in Prov 7:20 has the same meaning. Here the ‘loose woman’ who wants to seduce the unsuspecting young man assures him that her husband will not come home for some time because he is on a business trip and has taken with him the צְרֹור ־הַכֶּסֶף. A money purse was taken along only if someone was planning to do important business which would occupy him for some time.

A.2 Less well-filled is the צְרֹור in Hag 1:6 where the general economical depression is sketched with some catching phrases recalling the wording of curses (cf. Lev 26:26; Hos 4:10; Mic 6:14; Zech 8:10). The situation is so desperate that the wages of a daily labourer (הַמִּשְׂתַֹּכֵּר) are insufficient for his daily sustenance. He earns his money נָקוּב אֶל ־צְרֹור, so to say, for a purse with holes (pass. part. Qal √נקב ‘to perforate’). The imagery is recognisable: uncoined, sharp-edged pieces of silver cause wear on the bottom of the purse the top of which is tied up. Exactly because the text mentions a purse with holes in it, Hag 1:6 is rightly seen as the first biblical evidence for the use of a money purse.28

A.3 In these cases it is unclear how and where the purse or sachet was kept, but Song 1:13 suggests that normally it was attached to a string around the neck and worn on the most safe place, directly on the skin of the breast, hidden by the garment. Not unlike the neck wallets tourists wear nowadays. Like the signet ring (→ חֹותָם), it was not removed, not even at night, when people were sleeping in the nude (cf. Cant 5:3; KTU 1.2:III.20). In Song 1:13 צְרֹור is a pouch containing myrrh. The ‘bride’ compares her beloved to a הַמֹּר צְרֹור which rests (ipf. √לין) between her breasts. In the ambiguous language of love it is he who is represented by the pouch (cf. v. 12). As the myrrh is resting on her breast, so is his head resting lovingly on her breast, he is like a permanent perfume to her, adorably close. A pouch or bag to wear treasured objects on the breast was very common, cf. the pictures in the literature cited under Pictorial Material as well as Keel 1986 who interprets הַמֹּר צְרֹור as an amulet: ‘Seine intime und sichere Zugehörigkeit zu ihr schützt sie. Er verleiht ihr Lebenskraft und Ansehen.’.29 Others deem it more likely that הַמֹּר צְרֹור is a bundle or posy,30 but this is difficult to reconcile with the other occurrences of the word. Because it was the girl’s intention to intoxicate her lover with her fragrance, it is unlikely that the צְרֹור was made of leather. Rather it was made some kind of fabric. Initially myrrh is an oily resin exuding from the incised stems and branches of the Commiphora abyssinica (Berg.) shrub, but eventually it solidifies and can be crushed into granules which give off their perfume when warmed.31

6.2 Figurative Use

A.1 In Job 14:17a צְרֹור is used in a figurative sense, as a term describing the ‘pouch' in which Job‘s transgression (פֶּּשַׁע) is ‘sealed’ (√חתם). Both the fact that a word for a relatively small container is used and that thrice a singular is chosen to describe Job's sin (Job 14:16-17) would seem to indicate that Job does not have the feeling that he has to account for much. In v. 17b it is stated that his iniquity must be ‘plastered over’ (√טפל, meaning somewhat uncertain). This partially explains the image of a pouch in which something precious is tucked away or hidden, but exegetes differ of opinion with regard to the question whether this hiding is for the better (God will not come back to it) or the worse (God keeps it in store for the day of judgment, cf. Hos 13:12). Job 14:13 would seem to indicate that Job is still hoping for a positive verdict.

A.2 Tur-Sinai and Clines erroneously state that the sealing (√חתם) of the צְרֹור means that we are not dealing with a pouch here, but with a kind of napkin-ring around a folded document.32 If one tucks away something of great value or importance in a צְרֹור it is certainly possible to draw its string extra tight and to seal it with a clay bulla or stick it down with wax.33

A.3 Nabal's wife Abigail is confident that if someone would rise up to pursue David and to seek his life (אֶת ־נַפְשֶׁךָ לְבַקֵּּשׁ, 1 Sam 25:29a), David's נֶפֶשׁ will be safely bound ‘in the pouch of the living’ (הַחַיִּים בּצְרֹור, v. 29b) kept close to God's heart, but that God will sling out (√קלע, v. 29c) the נֶפֶשׁ of his enemies like a slingstone. Several exegetes connect the הַחַיִּים צְרֹור with ‘the book of life / of the living’ (Ps 69:29, cf. Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Mal 3:16) which entails understanding צְרֹור as a tied-up document. This interpretation seems unlikely if one takes into consideration a) the fact that nowhere in the O.T. צרר describes tying up a document (not even in Isa 8:1634), and that b) the careful structure of the verse35 indicates an antithetical correspondence between the content of v. 29b and v. 29c. David's נֶפֶשׁ is protected by putting it into the הַחַיִּים בּצְרֹור, the enemy’s נֶפֶשׁ is hurled out of the sling.

A.4 Cuneiform texts from Nuzi have thrown new light on this passage.36 A number of small pebbles corresponding to the number of sheep entrusted to a shepherd was enclosed in a ‘pouch’ of clay. Every pebble represented a sheep. On the outside a few lines of text and a seal impression identified the shepherd's master. Subsequenly the clay ball was baked in the sun so that its contents could not be changed without breaking it. When the shepherd returned from pasturing his flock, the owner broke into the clay ball and established how many full-grown sheep were missing. Usually this was offset against the number of new-born lambs. Because part of the increase of the herd represented the wages of the shepherd (cf. Isa 40:10), unaccountable loss was deducted from his earnings. This background definitely favours the translation ‘pouch of the living’ over ‘pouch of life’ in 1 Sam 25:29 and also excludes the magical interpretation proposed by Marmorstein.37

6.3 Archaeology

[Will be added later.]

6.4 Pictorial Material

A.1 Illustrations in Eissfeldt; Abusch; Keel.38

7. Conclusion

A.1 The צְרֹור was an object which meant much to its owner. Its sole purpose was to put away precious matters: gems, silver bars, money, expensive perfumery. Both context and cognates suggest that the צְרֹור was a small pouch or purse, usually tied with a string through its upper part. The cord went around the neck so that the צְרֹור rested on the naked breast to prevent robbery, under garments during the day, but because its contents were so precious, also during the night if people slept in the nude. This lended a special aura of intimacy to the צְרֹור and explains why it could become a metaphor for one's beloved. The circumstance that Joseph put the purses of his brothers surreptitiously back in their donkey-sacks should probably be seen as exceptional.

A.2 Although it is possible that the צְרֹור was sometimes made of leather, its use as a device to release a pleasant scent when warmed by the skin suggests that in some cases textile was the preferred material. Despite some renderings of the ancient versions there is no hard evidence for the fairly popular translation ‘bundle’.

A.3 Its status as a container for precious items made the צְרֹור also an ideal metaphor to express the feeling that some immaterial things were too precious (David's life) or too important (the evidence of Job's presumed misbehaviour) to treat them carelessly. The expression הַחַיִּים בּצְרֹור in 1 Sam 25:29 should be translated ‘in the pouch of the living’. Initially this had nothing to do with the afterlife. Only in later Judaism it was interpreted in this way.

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Abusch 1981
T. Abusch, ‘Notes on a Pair of Matching Texts’, in: M.A. Morrison & D.I. Owen (eds), Studies on the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians (Fs E.R. Lacheman), vol. 1, Winona Lake 1981, 1-9

Dalman, AuS, Bd. 5, 239; Bd. 7, 246

BDB, 865: ‘bundle, parcel, pouch (purse) of money, bag’

Brockelmann 1956
C. Brockelmann, Hebräische Syntax, Neukirchen 1956, §72a

Klein, CEDHL, 556-7

CHALOT, 310: ‘pouch, bag (for silver)’

Clines 1989
D.J.A. Clines, Job 1-20 (WBC, 17), Dallas 1989, 334

Alonso Schökel, DBHE, 620: ‘Bolsa, escarcela, zurrón’

DNP, Bd. 4, 888-9

Eissfeldt 1960 O. Eissfeldt, Der Beutel des Lebendigen: Alttestamentliche Erzählungs- und Dichtungsmotive im Lichte neuer Nuzi-Texte (BVSAW.PH, 105/6), Berlin 1960

EM, vol.6, 770

Exum 2005
J.C. Exum, Song of Songs: A Commentary (OTL), Louisville 2005, 112
Feliks 1968
Y. Feliks, המקראי הצומח עולם, Ramat-Gan 1968, 252-4

FHAWAT, 240: ‘Beutel, Säckchen’

Fohrer 1963
G. Fohrer, Das Buch Hiob (KAT, 16), Gütersloh 1963, 259
Fokkelman 1986
J.P. Fokkelman, Narrative Art and Poetry in the Books of Samuel, vol. 2, Assen 1986, 506-9
Garrett 2004
D. Garrett, Song of Songs (WBC, 23b), Nashville 2004, 146

GB, 695: ‘Bündel, Säckchen’

Glassner 2000
J.-J. Glassner, Écrire á Sumer: L'invention du cunéiforme, Paris 2000, 155-6

HALAT, 987: ‘Säckchen, Beutel’

Hartley 1988
J.F. Hartley, The Book of Job (NICOT), Grand Rapids 1988, 237

HAWAT, 26: ‘Beutel, Bündel, Sp Versammlung’

HCHAT, Bd. 2, 289: ‘Zus.gepacktes, Päckchen, Bündel ... Beutel

KBL, 816: ‘Geldbeutel, money-bag; Säckchen, Beutel, pouch, bag’

Keel 1986
O. Keel, Das Hohelied (ZB, 18), Zürich 1986, 69 Lambert 1960: W.G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature, Oxford 1960, 319

LHA, 703: ‘sacculus, folliculus, crumena, marsupium’

Loewe 1955
R. Loewe, ‘The Earliest Biblical Allusion to Coined Money?’, PEQ 87 (1955), 141-50
Marmorstein 1925
A. Marmorstein, ‘1 Sam 25:29’, ZAW 43 (1925), 119-24

MHH, 924-5: 1. לכסף כיס ,ארנק 2. שקית

NIDOT, vol. 3, 843

Oppenheim 1959
A.L. Oppenheim, ‘On an Operational Device in Mesopotamian Bureaucracy’, JNES 18 (1959), 121-8

Salonen, Hausgeräte, Teil 1, 192

Schwally 1891
F. Schwally, ‘Miscellen’, ZAW 11 (1891), 173
Stoop-Van Paridon 2005
P.W.T. Stoop-Van Paridon, The Song of Songs: A Philological Analysis of the Hebrew Book הַשִּׁירִים שִׁיר (Ancient Near Eastern Studies, 17), Louvain 2005, 84-5
TPC
Gesenius & Roediger, TPC, 1188: ‘fasciculus, sacculus, marsupium, crumena’
Tur-Sinai 1957
N.H. Tur-Sinai (H. Torczyner), The Book of Job: A New Commentary, Jerusalem 1957, 240-1

TWAT, Bd. 6, 1120-2

Van Staalduine 2002
E. Van Staalduine-Sulman, The Targum of Samuel (SAIS, 1), Leiden 2002, 444-5
Wildberger 1972
H. Wildberger, Jesaja I (BK, 10/1), Neukirchen 1972, 344-5

Winer, LMHC, 835: ‘fasciculus colligatus, spec. fasciculus pecuniae i.e. crumena, marsupium’

Zohari 1982
M. Zohary, Plants of the Bible: A Complete Handbook, Cambridge 1982, 200.

  1. cf. Td. 6, 1113; AT87, 990; Klein, HL56-7. ↩

  2. Salonen, sgeräteeil 1, 192. ↩

  3. Del Olmo Lete & Sanmartín, AT91. ↩

  4. Levy, WTM, Bd. 4, 224. ↩

  5. Jastrow, DTT, 1300. ↩

  6. Levy, WTM, Bd. 4, 224. ↩

  7. Sokoloff, DJPA, 471. ↩

  8. Sokoloff, DJBA, 974. ↩

  9. so Levy, CWT, 338. ↩

  10. so Sokoloff, DJPA, 470. ↩

  11. Tal, DSA, 745. ↩

  12. Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 485. ↩

  13. Costaz, DSF, 305. ↩

  14. Sokoloff, SLB, 1304-5. ↩

  15. Sokoloff, SLB, 1305. ↩

  16. Macuch, MD, 397. ↩

  17. Lane, AEL, 1672. ↩

  18. Dozy, SDA, t. 1, 826. ↩

  19. Wehr, DWMA, 510. ↩

  20. Krauss, TA, Bd. 1, 200. ↩

  21. GELS-L, 99. ↩

  22. LSJ, 880. ↩

  23. LSJ, 975. ↩

  24. GELS-L, 49: ‘bundle’; LSJ, 880: ‘band, breastband, girdle, bundle’. ↩

  25. GELS-L, 76; GELS-M, 112; LSJ, 304. ↩

  26. cf. Van Staalduine 2002. ↩

  27. cf. Brockelman 1956. ↩

  28. Loewe 1955. ↩

  29. cf. Fabry, TWAT, Bd. 6, 1120. ↩

  30. e.g. Garrett 2004; Stoop-Van Paridon 2005. ↩

  31. Feliks 1968; Zohary 1982; Exum 2005. ↩

  32. Tur-Sinai 1957 and Clines 1989. ↩

  33. cf. Lambert 1960; Fohrer 1963; Wildberger 1972; Hartley 1988. ↩

  34. cf. Wildberger 1972. ↩

  35. cf. Fokkelman 1986. ↩

  36. Oppenheim 1959; Eissfeldt 1960; Abusch 1981; Glassner 2000. ↩

  37. Marmorstein 1925. cf. Fabry, TWAT, Bd. 6, 1121. ↩

  38. Eissfeldt 1960, Fig. 1-7; Abusch 1981, 5, Pl. 2; Keel 1986, 69, Fig. 20. ↩

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database