Bible Lexicons

שָׁתַן only part. Hiphil מַשְׁתִּין making water. (The Talmudists use also inf. השתין, fut. ישתין; but there exists no trace of a root שתן: on the contrary, in the signification of making water there is used שִׁין; whence שַׁיִן. Jo. Simonis, ed. 2, therefore has not inaptly laid down הִשְׁתִּין to be contracted from הִשְׁתַּיֵּן Hithpael, from the root שִׁין.) It occurs in this one phrase, מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר “one making water against the wall,” which is generally a contemptuous designation for a little boy, especially when mention is made of extirpating a whole race or family, 1 Kings 16:11, “he slew all the house of Baasha, and left him none, mingens ad parietem (not even a boy), relations and friends;” 1 Kings 14:10, 21:21 1 Samuel 25:22, 34 1 Samuel 25:34; 2 Kings 9:8 compare the stone phrase in Syriac, e.g. Assem. Bibl. Orient. ii. p. 260, “an diœcesis sacra Gumœ (me teneat) in qua non remansit qui mingat ad parietem?” i.e. quœ tota devastata est. The phrase seems to be used contemptuously to denote a boy, because adults in the East regard decency in doing this sitting down [covered with their garments], nor would they do it in the sight of others (Herod. ii. 35; Cyrop. i. 2, § 16; Ammian. Marcell. xxiii. 6). Some have understood a slave, and a person of the lowest rank (Jahn, Arch. i. 2, p. 77; Hermeneut. Sacræ, p. 31), and some have understood a dog (Ephr. Syr. Opp. i. 542; A bulwalid, Judah ben Karish MSS., Kimchi, Jarchi); but both of these are unsuitable to the context of the passages. See Lud. de Dieu, on 1 Samuel 25:34 Boch. Hieroz. i. p. 675.