דְּוַי
𐤃𐤅𐤉
dᵉvay
H1741 noun
SILEX Entry
Definition
A state or period of sickness, disease, or physical ailment; by extension, languishing, weakness, or metaphorical suffering (such as grief or profound sorrow). Used to indicate both concrete affliction (bodily or mental) and, figuratively, a sense of exhaustion, despondency, or abhorrence resulting from sustained distress.
Semantic Range
sickness, illness, disease; languishing, physical wasting; sorrow, emotional suffering; loathing, aversion (figurative)
Root / Etymology
From the Hebrew root דוה (d-w-h), which primarily means 'to be unwell, to be sick, to experience illness.' The noun דְּוַי (dᵉvay) is derived from this root and denotes the state or condition resulting from illness, moving from the concrete sense (physical sickness) to metaphorical extensions (sorrow, languishing).
Historical & Contextual Notes
דְּוַי appears in contexts describing severe bodily sickness or wasting away (particularly in poetic and prophetic passages), often as an outcome of Divine judgment or calamity. The term's figurative use includes spiritual or emotional languishing, paralleling but distinct from terms like חֹלִי (ḥoli, 'sickness' with general or undefined connotation) and מַדְוֶה (madveh, 'disease'). Across periods, דְּוַי retains the primary sense of afflictive illness but is used by later biblical writers (e.g., Jeremiah, Hosea) to evoke both actual and metaphorical wasting. Standard English translations often obscure the overlap between physical illness and emotional suffering captured by this word. In some traditions, connotations of 'loathing' or 'aversion' appear as figurative extensions, but these are context-dependent and secondary to the primary sense of suffering or affliction.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from דָּוֶה; sickness; figuratively, loathing; languishing, sorrowful.
Bantu Hebrew
No Bantu Hebrew comparisons have been submitted for this word yet.
+ Add Bantu Hebrew WordRoot Family
דוה (d-w-h) — to be sick, be unwell, languish
| Strong's | Lemma | SIBI-P1 |
|---|---|---|
| H1738 | דָּוָה | her being sick |
| H1739 | דָּוֶה | sickened woman |
| H1742 | דַּוָּי | disease-stricken |
| H4064 | מַדְוֶה | sickness of |
Word Forms
2 distinct forms
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H1741-01 |
דְּוָ֑י | devay | HNcmsa |
of sickness | sickness | 1 |
H1741-02 |
כִּ/דְוֵ֥י | kidevey | HR/Ncmsc |
like the sickness of | sickness-of | 1 |
Occurrences in Scripture
2 total occurrences
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H1741-01 |
Psalms 41:4 | דְּוָ֑י | devay | HNcmsa |
of sickness | sickness |
H1741-02 |
Job 6:7 | כִּ/דְוֵ֥י | kidevey | HR/Ncmsc |
like the sickness of | sickness-of |