Hebrew word · H1158

בָּעָה

niv'eh

to enquire

Lexicons usually list two verbs under this spelling. One means 'to swell, bulge, bubble up, boil' (here; and Isa 30:13, a wall 'bulging out' before it collapses). The other is an Aramaic-type verb meaning 'to seek, ask, enquire' (Isa 21:12; Obad 6). Strong's puts both under one number.

Appears 5 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to seek out, swell, cause to swell, boil up, enquire

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to seek, enquire

1a2) to cause to boil up

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be searched out

1b2) to be swelling, bulging, swelling out

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 64:2

Range of meaning

Lexicons usually list two verbs under this spelling. One means 'to swell, bulge, bubble up, boil' (here; and Isa 30:13, a wall 'bulging out' before it collapses). The other is an Aramaic-type verb meaning 'to seek, ask, enquire' (Isa 21:12; Obad 6). Strong's puts both under one number.

Against the English

All the major English versions correctly have 'causes to boil'. The 'enquire' gloss in some databases comes from merging the two verbs.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 30:13 uses the same root for a bulge in a high wall that is about to burst, which also pictures something swelling under pressure until it breaks.

From the study of Isaiah 30:13

Range of meaning

Two words share these consonants. One (mainly Aramaic) means 'ask, seek, inquire' (Isa 21:12; Obad 6). The other means 'swell up, boil up, bulge' (Isa 64:2 [Eng. 64:1], fire makes water boil). Here the passive participle means 'swollen out, bulging.'

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'swelling out,' YLT 'swelled out,' ESV/BSB 'bulging/bulge,' NIV 'cracked and bulging.' All capture the sense well. Strong's gloss 'to enquire' does not fit this verse.

Used elsewhere in the period

Modern lexicons (e.g., HALOT) treat 'swell, bulge' as a separate sense or separate root. Jerome's Latin Vulgate reads requisita ('sought out'), which shows that ancient translators also took the word as 'seek.'

From the study of Obadiah 1:6

Range of meaning

Two roots of this form are listed: (1) 'to seek, ask, inquire' (close to Aramaic bʿā, 'seek, request', which is common in Daniel); (2) 'to swell, bubble up, cause to boil' (Isaiah 64:2[1]). Here the context clearly calls for 'be sought out'.

Against the English

Most versions: 'sought out' / 'searched out'. YLT's 'Flowed out' follows the second root ('bubble up'), which does not fit the parallel with 'searched' and is not followed by modern lexicons.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 21:12, in the oracle on Dumah/Seir, which is Edom's region: 'If you will inquire (tibʿāyûn), inquire.' Daniel 2:13, 16 etc. (Aramaic). LXX here translates freely: katelēmphthē, 'were seized/captured'. Vulgate: investigaverunt, 'they tracked down'.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 4

  1. Isaiah 21:12 תִּבְעָי֥וּן בְּעָ֖יוּ you will enquire !, enquire

    The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”

  2. Isaiah 30:13 נִבְעֶ֖ה bulging

    this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail, a bulge in a high wall, whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!

    Here: Bulging outward, the visible bowing of a wall whose inner structure has failed. The same root is used in Isaiah 64:2 of water boiling or swelling up. The lemma's usual gloss 'enquire' belongs to a different word spelled the same way and does not fit here.

  3. Isaiah 64:2 תִּבְעֶה־ it boils

    as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

    Here: Here the verb means to make something swell or bubble up. Fire (a feminine noun in Hebrew, matching the verb's form) makes the water boil. The supplied gloss 'to enquire' belongs to a different, same-sounding verb (Isa 21:12) and does not fit here.

Obadiah · 1

  1. Obadiah 1:6 נִבְע֖וּ they will be searched out

    But how Esau will be pillaged, his hidden treasures sought out!

    Here: A rare verb, passive and completed: 'they have been sought out'. It repeats the idea of the first verb, so the second line echoes the first. Nothing will stay hidden from the searchers.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.