Hebrew word · H1230
בַּקְבַּקַּר
uvakbakar
Bakbakkar
A personal name found only here, with uncertain meaning. Suggestions include a link with baqbūq, 'flask, jug' (an imitation of the gurgling sound) or with the root bqr, 'to search, inquire'.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A man of the tribe of Levi living at the time of Exile and Return, only mentioned at 1Ch.9.15
§ Bakbakkar = "searcher"
a Levite, apparently a descendant of Asaph
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 1 Chronicles 9:15
- Range of meaning
A personal name found only here, with uncertain meaning. Suggestions include a link with baqbūq, 'flask, jug' (an imitation of the gurgling sound) or with the root bqr, 'to search, inquire'.
- Against the English
Every English version just writes the name out, which is the right call.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Nowhere else. In Nehemiah 11:17, the matching list, Bakbukiah comes right after Mattaniah, and the names Bakbuk (Ezra 2:51) and Bakbukiah (Nehemiah 12:9, 25) are similar. HALOT and most commentators treat Bakbakkar as possibly the same person or a garbled form of the name.
Where it appears
1 Chronicles · 1
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1 Chronicles 9:15 וּבַקְבַּקַּ֥ר and Bakbakkar
Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal, and Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;
Here: The first Levite named in this group. The name appears nowhere else and its meaning is unclear. The 'and' joins him to the Merarite Levite Shemaiah in verse 14, so the list keeps running.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.