סָפַח
sa.phach
to attach
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word *Saphach* (סָפַח): Attachment and Addition The Hebrew verb *saphach* carries the fundamental meaning of "to attach," denoting a physical or relational act of joining one thing to another. With only five occurrences across the biblical text, this is a relatively rare word in Hebrew Scripture, suggesting it was employed for specific communicative purposes rather than as an everyday term. The limited frequency indicates the word was preserved in the biblical corpus because it conveyed a particular semantic nuance that translators and scribes deemed important enough to retain. The core concept of attachment embedded in *saphach* likely functions in contexts where union, joining, or addition needed precise expression. Though the provided data does not specify the particular biblical passages where this word appears, the rarity of the term means each occurrence potentially carries interpretive weight. Readers encountering this word would have recognized it as a deliberate lexical choice rather than a commonplace synonym for connection or joining, suggesting the original authors or editors selected it to emphasize the act or result of attaching with particular intentionality.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
5 total occurrences across the text
They bray among the bushes. They are gathered together under the nettles .
Isaiah 14:1For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.
Habakkuk 2:15“Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies!
1 Samuel 2:36It will happen that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.” ’ ”
1 Samuel 26:19Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to Yahweh’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’