נָסַס
na.sas
to faint
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of נָסַס (nasas) The Hebrew word נָסַס appears only once in the biblical text, making it among the rarest terms in Scripture. Its lexical definition points to a physical or emotional state of weakness: "to faint." This single occurrence limits our ability to observe how the word was used across different contexts or to identify nuances in its meaning that might emerge from repeated application. The scarcity of this term raises questions about its function in biblical Hebrew. A word that appears only once may represent either a specialized or technical term used in a particular narrative context, or it may simply be a less common synonym for more frequently used expressions of weakness or collapse. Without multiple instances to compare, we cannot determine whether נָסַס carried specific connotations distinct from related words, or whether it was simply one acceptable way to express the concept of fainting among several available options. For readers seeking to understand this word's significance, the single-occurrence limitation is crucial: we can only definitively say it meant "to faint" in that one biblical moment, without additional evidence to clarify whether it held broader or narrower applications in ancient Hebrew speech and writing.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text