My hypothesis would be that this word would refer to that which is
immoral, degenerate and absolutely wrong, but well-thought out or planned and that this word and mezîmmâh
are the same word but employed by different writers. Zîmmâh הָ ̣ז [pronounced zim-MAWH]
1. Zîmmâh (Strong's #2154, 2161 BDB #273) is very close to the word zâmam (ם ַ ָז ) [pronounced zaw-MAM],
which is a verb for plan, devise, purpose (Strong's #2161 BDB #273) and to mezîmmâh (ה ָ ̣ז ׃מ ) [pronounced
m'zim-MAWH] which seems to mean well-thought out wickedness or evil and is possibly the same word
essentially (Strong's 4209 BDB #273).
My hypothesis would be that this word would refer to that which is
immoral, degenerate and absolutely wrong, but well-thought out or planned and that this word and mezîmmâh
are the same word but employed by different writers.
2. Unfortunately, this word is translated almost as many different ways as it is found:
a. KJV: wickedness, lewsdness, purposes, henous crime, mischief, thought, wicked devices, lewd [way], and an inexplicable margined note enormity.
b. NASB: lewdness, immorality, plans, lustful crime, wicked scheme, wickedness, evil intent, lewd conduct, crime.
3. Zîmmâh is first found in Lev. 18:17 and is associated with incest between a man and his step-children or his step-grand children.
4. Making one's own daughter into a prostitute is associated with zîmmâh in Lev. 19:29.
5. If a man has two wives, both a mother and her daughter, such an act is so immoral (zîmmâh) that both are to be burned with fire (Lev. 20:14). That is a capital offense for an act of immorality.
6. I would have expected to find this word often i the book of Judges but it occurs one time. A Levite comes into the land of Gilead with his concubine and she is raped by several of the men of that area to the point that she dies—the husband classifies this as zîmmâh (Judges 20:6).
7. Job 17:11 is a problembecause this word is found and translated plan and there is no evil or immorality either real or implied in context. Job is likely a coterminous or an older book than Leviticus. We also find m'zîmmâh in Job 21:27 and 42:2. However, it is possible that the addition of the m' turned this word into a word for planned out evil as gross immorality is not associated with either word in Job; furthermore, the last reference deals with the plans of God. Someday I will get to Job. The Hebrew language in it may have its own peculiarities and be a dialect or be almost a prototype Hewbrew, depending upon when it was written. I would have first attributed this to a typo, if you will, because if you remove the bottom portion of the mêm(ם), it would look as much like hêh (ה) as anything else (recall that the vowel points were not found in the original manuscripts). However, such a thing occuring twice would be unlikely. For this reason, since these two words are found in Job with absolutely no connection to immorality, yet they are found in Leviticus with a definite connection to gross immorality, that the word either has two different coterminous meanings or Job is written in a slightly different dialect a prototype Hebrew, if you will. Zîmmâh is also found in Job 31:11 and it is tied directly to immorality there.
8. This word is associated with a gang of men devoted to bloodshed, bribes, and hands full of zîmmâh in Psalm 26:10.
9. Those who are far from God's Law are associated with this word in Psalm 119:150.
10. We all recognize that certain individuals look upon acts of crime and immorality as a game of sorts. This is not new; such activity was found in Solomon's day in Prov. 10:23 and associated with this word. This certainly would associate this word with some that is planned out as these criminals treat this sort of activity as a sport, a challenge, something to do for fun. Pre-planning also seems to be the underlying thread of the use of zîmmâh in Prov. 24:9.
11. A different use of the word is found in Prov. 21:27, but the same pre-planning seems to be there. This word is associated with trying to strap it on God, as Thieme used to say.
12. Isa. 32:7 seems to lean toward more pre-planning as an emphasis rather than immorality (although they could both be very well involved) in the use of zimmâh.
13. Jeremiah, however, clearly associates this word with gross immorality in Jer. 13:27 (lewdness) .
14. It is interesting to examine the vocabularies of certain prophets. Jeremiah and Isaiah both used this word but once, yet Ezekiel liked it, found it appropriate to his historical perspective and he used it 13 times. The similarities in the vocabulary found in Leviticus and Numbers and Ezekiel lead me to believe that he concentrated his own personal studies in these two books.
a. Ezek. 16:27, 57: The immorality of the Jews has gotten to the point that even the daughters of the Philistines are ashamed of their lewdness. They despise the Jews for this lewdness and the Jews would bear the penalty for their own lewdness.
b. Ezek. 16:43: On top of all their abomniations, the Jews commit acts of lewdness.
c. Ezek. 22:9–11: Zîmmâh is associated with certain acts of immorality.
d. Ezek. 23:21: Zîmmâh is associated with one's youthful immorality in a wistful way.
e. Ezek. 23:27–29, 35, 49: Israel will be punished for these acts of immorality.
f. Ezek. 23:44: This word is associated with immoral women.
g. Ezek. 23:48: God will put an end to this lewdness.
h. Ezek. 24:13: This planned immorality and lewdness seemed to be Israel's articular brand of sin during Ezekial's time.
15. It's final usage in Hos. 6:9 is not an association with sexual immorality, per se, but with planned immorality. A group of priests are guilty of murder; this would make them immoral in relation to God and their position as one's who represent man to God and God's provisions to man.
16. In conclusion, with the exception of the difficult passages in Job, I would say that this word has two primary components: planning and gross immorality. Therefore, it should be rendered [carefully-planned gross] immorality.