שָׂתַם

# שָׂתַם (satam): A Rare Hebrew Term for Stopping The Hebrew word שָׂתַם (satam) carries the straightforward meaning "to stopper"—referring to the action of blocking, plugging, or sealing an opening. This verb denotes a physical action of closing something off, whether a container, passage, or aperture. The term appears only once in the biblical text, making it a hapax legomenon (a word occurring only once in a given corpus). Because this word occurs just a single time in the Bible, its full semantic range and nuanced usage remain limited in what we can definitively establish from biblical evidence alone. The one surviving instance provides our sole window into how ancient Hebrew speakers employed this particular verb. Its meaning is transparent enough—the action of stoppage or sealing—but without multiple biblical contexts, we cannot determine whether it carried specialized technical, cultic, or idiomatic significance beyond its literal sense. The word likely belonged to everyday vocabulary for describing practical actions involving the blocking or closure of physical objects or spaces.