Bible Dictionary
Hiss
To hiss can mean to whistle or call, as when the Lord summons nations or gathers His people. It can also mean to express contempt, derision, or scorn.
Definition
To hiss may mean to whistle or make a sound that calls, summons, or attracts attention. It may also mean to express contempt, derision, or scorn. The same word is therefore used both of calling and of hostile public reaction.
Biblical Usage
The Lord is said to hiss for nations, enemies, bees, flies, or His own people, portraying a summons that brings them at His command. Elsewhere hissing expresses contempt or derision, especially in descriptions of destruction and disgrace.
Historical Background
The calling sense may reflect sounds used to attract bees or a person’s attention. The supplied material describes the word as mimetic, referring to hissing or whistling.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
To express contempt (Job 27:23). The destruction of the temple is thus spoken of (1 Kings 9:8). Zechariah (10:8) speaks of the Lord gathering the house of Judah as it were with a hiss: “I will hiss for them.” This expression may be “derived from the noise made to attract bees in hiving, or from the sound naturally made to attract a person’s attention.”
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>his (sharaq): "To hiss" has two applications:</p><p>(1) to call,</p><p>(2) to express contempt or scorn.</p><p>(1) It is the translation of sharaq, a mimetic word meaning to hiss or whistle, to call (bees, etc.), (a) Isa 5:26, "I will hiss unto them from the ends of the earth," the Revised Version (British and American) "hiss for them (margin "him") from the end of the earth"; 7:18, "Yahweh will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria"; namely, Egyptians whose land was noted for flies (18:1) and Assyrians whose country was pre-eminently one of bees. Dangerous enemies are compared to bees in De 1:44; Ps 118:12 (Skinner's Isaiah): Zec 10:8, "I will hiss for them, and gather them" (His own people, who will come at His call).</p><p>(2) More often, to hiss is to express contempt or derision (1Ki 9:8; Job 27:23; Jer 19:8, etc.). In this sense we have also frequently a hissing (2Ch 29:8; Jer 19:8; 25:9,18; 29:18; 51:37; Mic 6:16, shereqah); Jer 18:16, sheriqoth or sheruqoth; Ecclesiasticus 22:1, "Every one will hiss him (the slothful man) out in his disgrace" (eksurisso, "to hiss out"); The Wisdom of Solomon 17:9, "hissing of serpents" (surigmos).</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>