H0698 H0698
tricks or cunning; plural construct indicating skillful hand movements (Isa 25:11)
This plural noun denotes artifices or clever manipulations, literally 'tricks of his hands.' Isaiah uses it in a judgment oracle where God brings down the prideful, spreading their hands in drowning futility. The term suggests both dexterity and deceit—hands that scheme and grasp. The image warns that human cleverness, however skillful, cannot resist divine judgment.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Isaiah 25:11 warns: 'Though he spreads his hands in it as a swimmer spreads his hands to swim, God will lay low his pompous pride together with the tricks of his hands.' The phrase 'tricks of his hands' could mean swimming motions or desperate grasping, but the root sense of artifice suggests futile cleverness. Cross-lingual variation (English 'of-his-hands', Spanish 'habilidad-de'—'skill of', French/German preserve Hebrew) reflects uncertainty, but all recognize hand-related cunning failing before divine power. 1×
AR["حِيَلِ"]·ben["চাতুর্য"]·DE["[ארבות]"]·EN["of-his-hands"]·FR["[ארבות]"]·heb["ארבות"]·HI["हिलाने"]·ID["tipu-daya"]·IT["[ארבות]"]·jav["keprigelan"]·KO["간계를"]·PT["habilidades-de"]·RU["с-хитростью"]·ES["habilidad-de"]·SW["ujanja"]·TR["hileleriyle"]·urd["چالوں-کے"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [אָרְבָּה] n.f. artifice, pl. cstr. אָרְבוֹת ידיו Is 25:11 (lit. tricks of his hands).