נָקַר
nâqar · H5365 · Hebrew · 6 occurrences
Meanings
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to gnaw
Exact meaning unsure; literally: to dig out: causative action by which a condition inflicts an excruciating pain on someone's body (literally: bones)
ExamplesJob 30:17 “At night it pierces my bones within me, And my gnawing pains do not rest.
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to gouge out
Literally: to dig out; hence: causative action by which humans forcefully remove the eyes of other humans from their sockets to make them blind
ExamplesNumbers 16:14 “Indeed, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Would you gouge out the eyes of these men? We will not come up!”
Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and restrained him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison.
1 Samuel 11:2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “I will make it with you on this condition, that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, and thereby I will inflict a disgrace on all Israel.”
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to dig out
Causative action by which humans strike an object repeatedly with an axe, chisel, or other sharp implement, in order to alter its shape and so create a new object out of it
ExamplesIsaiah 51:1 “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, Who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, And to the quarry from which you were dug.
How it’s used In 4 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Who or what does itSubject
6 occurrences in 6 groups
- לַיִלnight 1
- עֹרֵבcrow 1
- Not stated: you (more than one) 1
- Not stated: you (one person) 1
- Not stated: they 1
- Not stated (infinitive) 1
What it acts on, or what is saidObject
5 occurrences in 3 groups
- עַיִןeye, sight 3
- עֶצֶםbone 1
- הָher 1
With prepositionsPrepositional phrases
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- לto/for+ כֶםyou 1
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- בin/on/with 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 2 words
- חָפַר châphar · H2658 · to paw, to dig
- The verb חָפַר is the standard Hebrew term for 'dig' (wells, pits, etc.) and overlaps significantly with the 'dig' sense of נָקַר, though חָפַר is more common and general while נָקַר often carries a more violent or piercing connotation.
- כָּרָה kârâh · H3738 · to dig, to hew out, to plot
- The verb כָּרָה means 'dig' or 'excavate' (pits, cisterns) and is a near synonym for the digging/excavating sense of נָקַר, though כָּרָה is more frequently used for intentional excavation projects.
In the other Testament 2 words
- ἐκκόπτω ekkóptō · G1581 · to cut down, to cut off, to cut in two
- The Greek verb ἐκκόπτω, particularly in its sense of 'gouge out' or 'pluck out' (as in Matthew 5:29, 18:9 for removing an eye), serves as a translation equivalent for נָקַר in contexts of violent removal or extraction, especially in the famous usage of Judges 16:21 where the Philistines 'gouged out' (נָקְרוּ) Samson's eyes.
- ὀρύσσω orýssō · G3736 · to dig, to excavate
- The Greek verb ὀρύσσω covers the 'dig' sense of נָקַר, used for digging cisterns, pits, or excavating, which aligns with the excavation/piercing semantic range of the Hebrew verb.
Semantic domains 3 entries
- Impact002001001024
- The word describes piercing or gouging with force, as the Ammonites threaten to gouge out the right eye of every man in Jabesh-gilead (1 Samuel 11:2), tying the word to this violent puncturing action.
- Non-Whole002003001021
- The word's gouging sense ties it to the forcible removal of a part from the whole, as an eye is dug out and destroyed, a broader sense of severance than the plain act of piercing.
- Exist002002002005
- The word can describe digging out or hollowing something into existence, such as a cistern or well being dug, a broader sense of bringing something into being than the violent-piercing citations sampled here.
Word family 2 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H5365. naqar [נָקַר] verb bore, pick, dig (Late Hebrew id., Aramaic נְקַר id.; Arabic…
[נָקַר] verb bore, pick, dig (Late Hebrew id., Aramaic נְקַר id.; Arabic perforate, bore out, hollow out Lane2838; Ethiopic be one-eyed Di645); —
Qal Imperfect3masculine plural suffix יִקְּרוּהָ Pro 30:17; Infinitive נְקוֺר 1Sa 11:3, both of boring, or picking out eye (accusative).
Pi`el Imperfect. 2 masculine singular תְּנַקֵּר Num 16:14 (JE), 3 masculine plural וַיְנַקְּרוּ Jdg 16:21 both of boring out eyes (accusative); Perfect3masculine singular נִקַּר Job 30:17 he (or it, i.e. the night) boreth my bones מֵעָלָ֑י (of effects of elephantiasis; Bu reads נֻקַּר).
Pu`al Perfect2masculine plural נֻקַּרְתֶּם Isa 51:1 the quarry (from which) ye were digged.
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 3 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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