The selected passages describe being still, remaining silent or stopping within very different circumstances. Psalm 37 calls the reader to be still before the Lord and wait rather than fret over wicked schemes.
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Full entry for דָּמַם (H1826) · Open the biblical lexicon
The selected passages describe being still, remaining silent or stopping within very different circumstances. Psalm 37 calls the reader to be still before the Lord and wait rather than fret over wicked schemes.
The BSB source-word alignment has 30 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include rest (3), will be silenced (3), and be still (2), be silent (2), in silence (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 15:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (8), Psalms (7), Job (3), Lamentations (3).
The selected passages describe being still, remaining silent or stopping within very different circumstances. Psalm 37 calls the reader to be still before the Lord and wait rather than fret over wicked schemes. Leviticus says Aaron remains silent after Moses speaks about the Lord's holiness following his sons' deaths. Joshua addresses the sun to stand still within the narrated battle account.
These statements should not be flattened into one instruction about human behavior. Aaron's silence does not reveal every thought or feeling he held, and Joshua's unique scene is not a technique for controlling circumstances. Read who is still or silent, before whom, and why. The word's presence does not make silence consent or authorize silencing someone who needs to speak.
Patient stillness before the Lord, Aaron's narrated silence and the sun's commanded standstill preserve different subjects and situations without one rule for grief or human agreement.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret when men prosper in their ways, when they carry out wicked schemes.
Stillness is joined to waiting before the Lord rather than fretting over prosperous wicked schemes, so the surrounding contrast explains the exhortation.
Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.
Aaron's silence is narrated after Moses's statement about divine holiness following the deaths; the verse does not state all of Aaron's inner feelings or agreement.
On the day that the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
Joshua's address to the sun belongs to the particular battle account, whose following verses emphasize the uniqueness of the day and the Lord's action.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Silence as enforced cessation: muteness, astonishment, or death—states of forced inaction and speechlessness
Silence as enforced cessation: muteness, astonishment, or death—states of forced inaction and speechlessness
to be dumb; by implication, to be astonished, to stop; also to perish BDB: wail Usage: cease, be cut down (off), forbear, hold peace, quiet self, rest, be silent, keep (put to) silence, be (stand) still, tarry, wait.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 30 lexical occurrence verses.
דָּמַם is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Aaron's silence is especially vulnerable to additions that the sentence does not make. Leviticus states his response after the deaths and Moses's words, but it does not give a complete account of his thoughts, feelings or consent. Psalm 37 supplies a different setting, calling for waiting before the Lord rather than fretting over wicked schemes. Amos mentions prudent silence in evil days while the surrounding passage condemns oppression and calls for justice.
Those contexts cannot become a blanket demand that vulnerable people remain quiet. Joshua introduces another subject and a unique narrated day, not an ordinary instruction for a reader's emotional life. Explain what the text states and leave unstated inner judgments unstated. That protects both the passage's meaning and people from coercive uses of silence language.
Lev.10.3
The selected direct BSB rows translate this verb as be still, remained silent and stand still. Their different subjects and clauses establish the limited range explained here without treating every supplied comparison label as the same contextual meaning.
Christian discussions of waiting, grief or speech should be compared with these passages through their actual contexts. No direct New Testament quotation is claimed from the verb alone, and Aaron's narrated silence does not become a universal Christian obligation to hide sorrow or refrain from reporting wrongdoing.