Bruit

Bruit is an archaic English word meaning a rumor or report, found only in Jeremiah 10:22 (KJV: “Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country”) and Nahum 3:19 (KJV: “all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee”). Modern translations render it as “rumor,” “report,” or “news.” The Hebrew shema' means that which is heard—a report, tidings, or sound.

In Jeremiah 10:22 the bruit refers to the report of an advancing army from the north, widely understood as the Babylonian invasion. In Nahum 3:19 the bruit refers to the news of Nineveh's fall, over which all who hear will clap their hands in relief after centuries of Assyrian brutality. The two uses bracket the prophetic use of the term: in one case a bruit of approaching catastrophe, in the other a bruit of long-awaited judgment on the oppressor. The word itself, long obsolete in English, survives only in these two King James passages.