צֵאָה (tsa.ah)
tsa.ah
excrement
H:N-FQuick Reference
- Language
- Biblical Hebrew
- Testament
- Old Testament
- Occurrences
- 1 verses
- Root
- —
- Part of speech
- H:N-F
Word Overview
The noun tsa’ah refers to human waste or filth. In the Hebrew Bible it is a stark, unglamorous term that strips away any pretense of dignity. It describes the physical byproduct of the body in its most base form, serving as a concrete symbol for shame, defilement, and lowliness.
This word appears only once in Scripture, in Isaiah 65:4. There it is part of a list of practices that separate the people from God, including eating swine’s flesh and keeping broth in their vessels. The prophet uses tsa’ah to depict a life consumed by idolatrous rituals and self-indulgence, where spiritual purity is replaced by literal and moral impurity.
Its singular usage highlights the severity of the warning. By associating the people’s behavior with excrement, Isaiah emphasizes how far they have strayed from holiness. The term forces the reader to confront the ugliness of sin without metaphorical cushioning, presenting a raw picture of what it means to live in opposition to divine order.
Based on public-domain lexicons (Strong's, Thayer, Gesenius, Brown-Driver-Briggs and others).
What This Word Means for Your Faith
The word tsa’ah appears only once in Scripture, in Isaiah 65:4, where it describes human waste. This stark term strips away any pretense of dignity, serving as a concrete symbol for shame and defilement. The prophet uses it to depict a life consumed by idolatrous rituals, where spiritual purity is replaced by moral impurity.
Its singular usage highlights the severity of the warning against straying from holiness. By associating behavior with excrement, Isaiah emphasizes how far the people have moved from divine order. This raw picture invites us to examine our own lives for areas that may be defiling our relationship with God.
How it's translated
How this word is rendered word-by-word in the 1 verses where it appears, by frequency.
- filth1×
Forms in the text
The inflected forms of this word as they appear in Scripture, by frequency.
- צֵ֖א1×
Key Verses
-
Isaiah 30:22
You shall defile the overlaying of your engraved images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as an unclean thing. You shall tell it, “Go away!”
This verse provides the context for casting away defiled objects, illustrating the practical outworking of the impurity described by tsa'ah in Isaiah 65:4.