Hebrew word · H1227
בַּקְבּוּק
vakbuk
Bakbuk
As a common noun, a narrow-necked earthenware flask or jug (1 Kings 14:3, holding honey; Jeremiah 19:1, 10, the potter's jar Jeremiah smashes). As a proper name, the founder of a temple-servant family (Ezra 2:51; Nehemiah 7:53).
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
A man living at the time of Exile and Return, first mentioned at Ezr.2.51
§ Bakbuk = "bottle"
a head of a family of temple-slaves returning from exile with Zerubbabel
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 Nehemiah 7:53
- Range of meaning
As a common noun, a narrow-necked earthenware flask or jug (1 Kings 14:3, holding honey; Jeremiah 19:1, 10, the potter's jar Jeremiah smashes). As a proper name, the founder of a temple-servant family (Ezra 2:51; Nehemiah 7:53).
- Against the English
English versions simply transliterate it. That is correct for a name, but the reader loses the everyday picture the name carried.
- Used elsewhere in the period
BDB and HALOT both take the word as imitating sound, the 'bak-buk' gurgle of pouring liquid. The related Levite name Bakbukiah (Nehemiah 11:17; 12:9, 25) shows the element could also appear in names combined with Yah.
Similar words
Where it appears
Ezra · 1
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Ezra 2:51 בַקְבּ֥וּק Bakbuk
the descendants of Bakbuk, the descendants of Hakupha, the descendants of Harhur,
Nehemiah · 1
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Nehemiah 7:53 בַקְבּ֥וּק Bakbuk
the descendants of Bakbuk, the descendants of Hakupha, the descendants of Harhur,
Here: A family founder's name that is the same as the common word for an earthenware flask or jug (Jeremiah 19:1). The word probably copies the gurgling sound of liquid poured from a narrow neck. It may first have been a nickname.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.