Word.ws English Dictionary

pesher

UK/ˈpɛʃ.ə//ˈpɛʃ.ɚ/

pesher noun: an interpretive commentary on scripture, especially one in Hebrew.

Noun

pesher (plural pesharim or peshers)

  1. An interpretive commentary on scripture, especially one in Hebrew.
    • In 1807, Manasseh Illier sought in his Pesher Dabar (Solution to the Problem) to bring unity into the ranks of Jewry by reconciling all the factions of the conflicting schools of thought through the harmonization of reason and faith.1944, Louis Greenberg, The Jews in Russia: The Struggle for Emancipation, page 68
    • In commenting upon lQ28b, Abbe Milik referred to this fragment as a pesher on the Psalms, but since that time the document has been augmented by new fragments, and it appears certain that it is, in fact, a commentary on Isaiah.1954, The Biblical Archaeologist, volumes 17-20, page 91

Examples of pesher in a sentence

  • Of all the Dead Sea texts it is the Habakkuk pesher (1QpHab) that, by common consent, exhibits the most impressive agreements with a Targum text.1994, Robert P. Gordon, Studies in the Targum to the Twelve Prophets, from Nahum to Malachi, page 83:
  • The Pesher on Zephaniah (1Q15)⁴⁵ interprets Zeph 1:18 and 2:2 as referring to "all the inhabitants of the Land of Judah" (i.5).2001, Graham Harvey, The True Israel: Uses of the names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature, page 33:
  • According to the suggested interpretation he sinned horribly; his victims were 'only' Pharisees, but the author of the pesher does think that he went too far in his tyrannical actions.2003, Geert Wouter Lorein, The Antichrist theme in the Intertestamental Period, pages 196–197:

Forms of pesher

pluralpesharim
pluralpeshers

Origin of pesher

Transliteration of Hebrew פֵּשֶׁר (pēšer, “interpretation, solution”). Popularised after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.

Words that rhyme with pesher

Questions about pesher

What does pesher mean?
Pesher means an interpretive commentary on scripture, especially one in Hebrew.
How do you use pesher in a sentence?
Of all the Dead Sea texts it is the Habakkuk pesher (1QpHab) that, by common consent, exhibits the most impressive agreements with a Targum text.
What part of speech is pesher?
Pesher is a noun.
How do you pronounce pesher?
Pesher is pronounced /ˈpɛʃ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of pesher?
The plural of pesher is pesharim.

Words near pesher in the dictionary

  1. Peshawuris
  2. peshcash
  3. peshcashes
  4. peshcush
  5. peshcushes
  6. pesher
  7. peshers
  8. peshgi
  9. Peshito
  10. Peshitta
  11. Peshitto

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pesher (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pesher.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pesher.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pesher. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.