זְוָעָה
ze.va.ah
trembling
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of זְוָעָה (Zevaaah) The Hebrew word זְוָעָה (zevaaah) denotes a state of physical trembling or shaking. Based on the lexicon data, this term describes an involuntary bodily response, likely conveying both the motion itself and the emotional or physical distress that accompanies it. The extremely limited textual evidence—a single occurrence in the biblical corpus—severely restricts our ability to establish the word's range of meaning or contextual usage patterns. With only one instance, we cannot determine whether the term carried specialized theological significance, whether it appeared in particular literary genres, or how it related to similar Hebrew words for fear, trembling, or agitation. The word remains largely isolated in the biblical record. Given this scarcity of attestation, זְוָעָה appears to be either an uncommon synonym for trembling among the Hebrew vocabulary, a term limited to specific contexts now lost to us, or possibly a variant expression for physical shaking. Without additional occurrences to illuminate its nuances, we can confidently say only that it describes trembling as a bodily phenomenon, leaving its broader significance and precise theological or emotional associations beyond our reach.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text