כיזב

Cognate with Aramaic כַּדֵּיב (“to lie”) and Arabic كَذَّبَ (kaḏḏaba, “to accuse of lying”).

• (Modern Israeli Hebrew) IPA^(key): /kiˈzev/

• Audio:

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כיזב / כִּזֵּב • (kizév) (pi'el construction)

1. to lie, to deceive
   • Tanach, 2 Kings 4:16b, with translation of the Jewish Publication Society:

     וַתֹּאמֶר אַל־אֲדֹנִי אִישׁ הָאֱלֹהִים אַל־תְּכַזֵּב בְּשִׁפְחָתֶךָ׃

     And she said: ‘Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thy handmaid.’

   • Tanach, Numbers 23:19, with translation of the Jewish Publication Society:

     לֹא אִישׁ אֵל וִיכַזֵּב וּבֶן־אָדָם וְיִתְנֶחָם הַהוּא אָמַר וְלֹא יַעֲשֶׂה וְדִבֶּר וְלֹא יְקִימֶנָּה׃

     God is not a man, that He should lie; Neither the son of man, that He should repent: When He hath said, will He not do it? Or when He hath spoken, will He not make it good [fulfill it]?

2. (figuratively) to fail, dry up (of water originating from springs or flowing in a stream)
   • Tanach, Isaiah 58:11b, with translation of the Jewish Publication Society:

     וְהָיִיתָ כְּגַן רָוֶה וּכְמוֹצָא מַיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יְכַזְּבוּ מֵימָיו׃

     And thou shalt be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

   • a. 230 C.E., Tosefta. Parah, section 9.1:

     וְכֵן הָָיָה ר׳ יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר יוֹרֶדֶת הַצַּלְמִין אֲסוּרָה מִפְּנֵי שֶׁכִּזְבָּה בִּשְׁעַת פּוֹלְמוֹס אָמְרוּ לוֹ כֹּל מֵימֵי בְּרֵאשִׁית כִּזְבּוּ בִּשְׁעַת פּוֹלְמוֹס.

     And so too would Rabbi Yehuda say, one who goes down to Tzalmin is forbidden [to draw water], because they [are waters which are known to] have failed in times of war. They said to him, all the waters of Creation failed in times of war.

The person affected by the lie is expressed either using לְ־ (l'-) or בְּ־ (b'-).

• → Aramaic: כַּזֵּב (to lie)

• כָּזָב (kazáv)

• H3576 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Klein, Ernest (1987) “כזב”, in A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English‎^[1], Jerusalem: Carta, →ISBN, page 274a
• Jastrow, Marcus (1903) A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature‎^[2], London, New York: Luzac & Co., G.P. Putnam's Sons, page 627b