Aramaic word · H1693
דְּבֵק
davekin
to cleave
To cling, adhere, stick to, hold fast. It is the Aramaic counterpart of the Hebrew dabaq, which is used for physical sticking (a tongue to the roof of the mouth, Ps 137:6), loyalty (Ruth 1:14) and marriage (Gen 2:24).
A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?
Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·
What it means
(P'al) to cling
Aramaic of da.vaq (דָּבַק "to cleave" H1692)
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
- Range of meaning
To cling, adhere, stick to, hold fast. It is the Aramaic counterpart of the Hebrew dabaq, which is used for physical sticking (a tongue to the roof of the mouth, Ps 137:6), loyalty (Ruth 1:14) and marriage (Gen 2:24).
- Against the English
KJV's "cleave" is correct in its old sense of "stick to", but most modern readers know "cleave" as "split" (a meat cleaver), which is the opposite meaning. BSB's "hold together" and WEB's "cling" make the sense clear.
- How it drifted
English "cleave" merged two Old English verbs, one meaning "stick" and one meaning "split". Today the "split" sense dominates.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Biblical Aramaic uses it only here. The Hebrew root is common, including in marriage language (Gen 2:24). Theodotion has proskollōmenoi, "glued to", the same verb family the Greek Bible uses in Genesis 2:24.
Where it appears
Daniel · 1
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Daniel 2:43 דָּבְקִ֖ין clinging
As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay.
Here: "Clinging" or "sticking". It comes from the same root as the Hebrew word in Genesis 2:24 (a man "holds fast" to his wife) and means things bonded together. Here that bond is denied.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.