Hebrew verb · H6850
צָפַף
tsaphaphtsaw-faf'
to whisper
4 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key
Concordance spelling: tsâphaph
Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H6850is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.
- 1 of 39Old Testament books
- 4spellings
The definition in full
Strong's key (1890) · H6850
to coo or chirp (as a bird)
The King James renders it: chatter, peep, whisper.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.
Summary
tsaphaph is rendered "to whisper". It stands 4 times in the Hebrew text, across one book.
- Four of the uses stand in Isaiah, more than in any other book.
- Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Isaiah 8:19When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
- The Greek text spells it four different ways.
The first use
When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
Isaiah 8:19הַֽמְצַפְצְפִ֖ים
The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.
Where the word stands
Four of the word's four uses are in Isaiah.
What the word means
Each meaning, and the words it is translated by
How the Greek text is glossed, word by word
- and chirping1
- I chirp1
- it will whisper1
- who whisper1
The words built on the same word-part
Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.
All 4, in canonical order
Every use, in order
Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.
4 spellings and their grammar
STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.
How it is spelled
- אֲצַפְצֵ֔ף1
- הַֽמְצַפְצְפִ֖ים1
- וּמְצַפְצֵֽף׃1
- תְּצַפְצֵֽף׃1
The grammar of each form
- conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · masculine singular1HC/Vprmsa
- the definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · masculine plural1HTd/Vprmpa
- verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 1st person common singular1HVpi1cs
- verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singular1HVpi3fs
Isaiah
four uses
When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
- הַֽמְצַפְצְפִ֖יםhamtzaftzefimthe definite article (“the”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · masculine pluraltagged: who whisper
My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”
- וּמְצַפְצֵֽף׃umetzaftzefconjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · masculine singulartagged: and chirping
You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.
- תְּצַפְצֵֽף׃tetzaftzefverb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it will whisper
I chirp like a swallow or crane; I moan like a dove. My eyes grow weak as I look upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my security.”
- אֲצַפְצֵ֔ףʾatzaftzefverb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 1st person common singulartagged: I chirp
The letters
Gematria 250· 970 mispar gadol
Where it leads
How the numbers are counted
Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.
Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.
The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.