צִמְאָה
tsim.ah
parched
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of צִמְאָה (tsim'ah) The Hebrew word צִמְאָה appears only once in the biblical text, where it carries the meaning "parched"—describing a state of extreme dryness. Based on its single occurrence, this term denotes a condition of severe dehydration or aridity, whether applied to land, vegetation, or potentially other contexts requiring moisture. The specificity of this word suggests it conveyed a particular intensity or quality of dryness that biblical writers chose to employ for its precise descriptive power. The rarity of this term's appearance in the biblical corpus—just one documented occurrence—indicates it was likely a specialized or less common word choice, even among the diverse vocabulary available in biblical Hebrew. Its function appears to be descriptive rather than metaphorical or theological, pointing to observable physical conditions. Without access to additional contextual data, we can only confirm that biblical writers had this term in their linguistic arsenal when they needed to convey the concept of being thoroughly dried out or parched.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1 total occurrence across the text