Day 70 of 75 · Judgment and liberation
B-Y-Sh
bisha: what is wrong
בישא · באש
ܒ݁ܺܝܫܳܐ · ܒܐܫ
The feel
Bisha names what is no good: evil, harmful, worthless, or spoiled. It reaches from a rotten fish and a bad tree to the accuser. It also names wrong felt within: when children are pushed away, wrongness registers in the body as the heat of indignation.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| bisha | adjective / noun, m. | bišā | בישא ܒ݁ܺܝܫܳܐ | evil, bad, wicked | what is wrong; bad (57× in the corpus) |
| bishata | adjective, f. pl. | bišātā | בישתא ܒ݁ܺܝܫܳܬ݂ܳܐ | evil things | bad things (Mt 12:35) |
| etbesh | Ethpeel verb (from b-ʾ-sh) | weʾtbeʾš | ואתבאש ܘܶܐܬ݂ܒ݁ܶܐܫ | be much displeased | to be indignant (Mk 10:14) |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary.
The verb stems
| Stem | Form | Sense | In this corpus |
|---|
| Peal | bʾesh | to be bad, to go ill | scaffold form; the base sense under the family |
| Ethpeel | etbeʾsh | to be displeased, indignant | attested: weʾtbeʾš, Mk 10:14 |
| Pael | — | — | not attested |
| Ethpaal | — | — | not attested |
| Aphel | — | — | not attested |
| Ettaphal | — | — | not attested |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.
In his voice
Matthew 6:13 · interlinear
And do not bring us to the trial, but rescue us from what is wrong.
bišā , "what is wrong." The prayer's last petition ends on this root (standard: "evil" or "the evil one").
Matthew 12:35 · interlinear
A man with a good treasure brings out good things, and a man whose treasure has spoiled brings out what has spoiled.
bišā … bišātā : the root three times over in one sentence: the bad person, the bad things, the bad store they come from.
Mark 10:14 · interlinear
When Yeshua saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them. The reign of God belongs to ones like these.
weʾtbeʾš , "and he was indignant." The same family, turned inward: ill feeling kindled at a wrong being done.
Practice
Notice one thing quietly going bad this week: a habit, resentment, or corner cut. Do not dramatize it. Name it plainly: this is bisha, this is what is wrong.
Say bee shah, letting the first syllable carry the weight: bisha, what is wrong.
Connections
Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.