1. work, service, administration (Aramaic) — Aramaic feminine noun עֲבִידָה denoting work, labor, service, or administrative duty, used exclusively in the book of Daniel and Ezra in reference to governmental or temple service. All three clusters represent the same semantic concept in different morphosyntactic frames: construct state 'work of' (S121920), absolute/construct forms for 'administration/affairs' (S121921), and conjunction-prefixed 'and work' (S121923). Multilingual evidence confirms a single sense domain: Spanish 'obra / asuntos,' Hindi 'सेवा / काम / कार्यों,' Arabic 'عَمَل / أَعْمَالِ / العَمَل,' Korean '일 / 일들,' Swahili 'kazi / huduma.' The variation between 'work' and 'administration' reflects contextual usage rather than distinct lexicographic senses. 6×
AR["أَعْمَالِ","عَمَل","عَمَل-","عَمَلُ","وَ-العَمَل-"]·ben["আর-কাজ","কাজ","কাজের"]·DE["[ועבידתא]","[לעבידת]","[עבידת]","[עבידתא]"]·EN["administration-of","and-work","the-service-of","the-work-of","work-of"]·FR["et-travail","service","travail"]·heb["ו-עבידתא","ל-עבידת","עבודת","עבידת"]·HI["और-काम","काम","काम-को","कार्यों","सेवा"]·ID["dan-pekerjaan","pekerjaan","pelayanan","urusan"]·IT["[עבידת]","[עבידתא]","e-lavoro","lavoro"]·jav["kangge-pedamelan","pakaryan","pedamelan","peladosan","punika"]·KO["그-일","그리고-그-일","에-그-일","일","일들의"]·PT["a-obra-de","e-a-obra","o-serviço-de","obra-de"]·RU["-делами","и-работа","работа","работу","службу"]·ES["el-servicio-de","la-obra-de","los-asuntos-de","obra-de","y-obra"]·SW["huduma","kazi","kazi-ya","kazi-za","na-kazi"]·TR["isi","isine","isini","işlerinin","ve-is"]·urd["اور-کام","لے-کام","کام","کاموں"]
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [עֲבִידָה] n.f. work, service (BH עֲבֹדָה);—emph. עֲבִידְתָּא Ezr 5:8; Dn 2:49, cstr. עֲבִידַת Ezr 4:24 +;— 1. work, of building temple, Ezr 4:24; 5:8; 6:7; = administration Dn 2:49; 3:12. 2. ritual, service, of God Ezr 6:18.