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Bible Dictionaries
Set On, Set Up
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Verb.
Śı̂ym (שִׂים, Strong's #7760), “to put, place, set, fix.” This word also appears in Akkadian (as shamu), Aramaic (including biblical Aramaic), Arabic, and Ethiopic. It appears about 580 times in biblical Hebrew, in all periods, and almost exclusively in the primary stem.
In its first biblical appearance śı̂ym means “to put or place someone somewhere”: “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Gen. 2:8). In Exod. 40:8 the verb means “to set up,” in the sense of “to place or put something so that it is perpendicular or vertical”: “And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate.” Other things are “set up” in a figurative sense, like a wall. So Micah speaks of “setting up” a siege, a wall, around a city: “… He hath laid siege against us …” (Mic. 5:1; cf. 1 Kings 20:12). This image is also used figuratively of a human wall in one’s path: “I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt” (1 Sam. 15:2).
Śı̂ym is used sometimes in the sense “to set over, impose on” (negatively): “Therefore they did set [imposed] over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens” (Exod. 1:11). A more positive use of the word in the sense “to appoint” (where the appointment is pleasing to the wards) appears in 1 Sam. 8:5—the elders of Israel asked the aged Samuel: “… Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” In such usages one in authority determines or is asked to determine something. This is the focus of the word in Num. 24:23, where Balaam said: “Alas, who shall live when God doeth this!”
This verb means “to make,” as it does in Zeph. 3:19: “… And I will get them praise and fame [make their shame into praise and fame] in every land where they have been put to shame.”
In some passages śı̂ym is used in the figurative sense of setting something or putting it before one’s mind: “… They have not set God before them” (Ps. 54:3). The same phrase is used in a literal sense in Ezek. 14:4 (cf. NIV).
Śı̂ym also means “to put down” in the sense of literally setting something on the ground, on a chair, or a flat surface: “… Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood” (Gen. 22:9). In a related sense one “puts down” a distance or space between himself and someone else: “And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob …” (Gen. 30:36). In Job 4:18 the word means to charge someone with an error, or “to put it down” against or to him. Closely related to this legal use of śı̂ym is 1 Sam. 22:15, where it means “to impute” (lay to one’s charge), and Deut. 22:8, where it means “to bring guilt upon oneself.” Other passages use this verb of putting clothing on, in the sense of setting it down upon one’s body (Ruth 3:3). So, too, one may obligate someone with a task: one may impose it upon him (Exod. 5:8).
When used with “hand,” śı̂ym may signify putting (Exod. 4:21) or taking something (Judg. 4:21) into one’s grasp. Closely related is the phrase “putting hands on,” or “arresting” (2 Kings 11:16).
This verb may be used in the sense of “giving for” (in behalf of). So Job says: “Lay down now, put me in a surety with thee … ,” or give a pledge for me (Job 17:3). In a related sense the Servant of the Lord would “make his soul an offering for sin” (Isa. 53:10).
In Dan. 1:7 śı̂ym signifies “to assign something to, or give to”; the commander of the officials assigned new names to them. In Job 5:8 this giving constitutes handing over one’s cause to another, while in Exod. 21:1 it represents fully stating God’s word in the presence of His people so as to make it possible for them to receive it fully.
To place or put something on one’s heart means to consider it (Isa. 47:7) or to pay heed to it (1 Sam. 21:12). The meaning “to fix,” as to fix something in a particular place, appears in Gen. 24:47: “… And I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.” So, too, in Deut. 14:1 God commands Israel not “to fix” a bald spot on their foreheads for the sake of the dead. Other things may be so “fixed,” such as plants (Isa. 28:25) and ashes (Lev. 6:10). The word means “to make” in Exod. 4:11“Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf …?” The first nuance here signifies the creation of the thing (fixing its nature) and the second its disposition (fixing its use; cf. Gen. 13:16). Closely related is the use of the verb to represent “to state, to appoint, or to assign”; in Exod. 21:13, God will appoint a place for the manslayer to flee. In an extended sense śı̂ym signifies “to assign to continue,” or “to preserve”: “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (Gen. 45:7). Thus, to set a remnant is to keep it alive. Therefore, śı̂ym means “to preserve.” To set glory and praise to the Lord is to establish it by stating it (Josh. 7:19). God’s establishing the plagues on Pharaoh is also an appointing (Exod. 8:12).
B. Noun.
Tesumet, means “something laid down; a deposit or joint property.” This noun occurs only once in biblical Hebrew: “If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord, and lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship [tesumet] …” (Lev. 6:2).
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Set On, Set Up'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/set-on-set-up.html. 1940.
