ZIFF

Lehite noun

Apparently a metal, for it is listed with silver, iron, brass and copper, in a text relating to ca. 160 BC and referring to materials used by King Noah of the city of Nephi to ornament buildings (Mosiah 11:3, 8).

Possibly Hebrew zîw, “splendor, brightness,” for zehiw (*???) from zhh, “shine, be proud, fair, bright, splendid.” Apparently related are Arabic zayyun, ziyyun, “ornament,” and the roots zhy and zyy, “adorn, cause to shine, redden.” Cf. also Assyrian zimu, zivu (RFS). The name Zif (biblical Hebrew ziw), is that of a calendar month (1 Kings 6:1, 37).

From RFS: See the comments of Read H. Putnam, “Were the Plates of Mormon of Tumbaga?”, The 15th Annual Symposium on the Archaeology of the Scriptures (Provo: University Archaeological Society, BYU, 16 May 1964), p. 106, citing Sperry, Problems of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964), p. 147, and Mosiah 11:8. Putnam speculates that ziff may have been zinc or tumbaga. RFS favors tumbaga due to the Arabic association with “redden;” tumbaga is particularly beautiful and has a definite redness.

Cf. Hebrew GN Ziph, zyf (2 Chronicles 11:8) and on a jar handle from RamatRahel (IDAM No. 62–40) (JAT; Nibley also mentions in SC 195, without making a connection to this name).

The Book of Mormon element Ziff, used in King Noah’s construction, may be something other than a metal, in which case we should consider the possibility of Hebrew zepet, “pitch, bitumen, asphalt” (Exodus 2:3; Isaiah 34:9), which appears also in Samaritan (zefet) (Rosenthal, Aramaic Handbook II/2, 4) and in Arabic as dift. Cf. Egyptian sft, name of one of the seven oils (= Coptic sife, “tar”), and perhaps Egyptian Demotic sfy, resin of coniferous trees (JAT).

Ziff. Hebrew, ziph, seph = a metal. Reynolds, The Story of the Book of Mormon, 5th ed., p.293.

Hebrew, “brightness”, “metallic brightness.” Reynolds, Dictionary of the Book of Mormon, p. 360.

Hebrew, ziph, zeph = “metal”. Ziff = “metallic brightness.” Reynolds, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, VII, p. 373.