Hebrew word · H1796
דֳּכִי
dakheyam
pounding
Found only here. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'pounding, crashing, dashing' (of waves), from the root dkh/dkʾ, 'to crush, beat down' (Ps 44:19; 51:8, 'the bones you have crushed').
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
crushing, dashing, crashing, pounding of waves
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
Found only here. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'pounding, crashing, dashing' (of waves), from the root dkh/dkʾ, 'to crush, beat down' (Ps 44:19; 51:8, 'the bones you have crushed').
- Against the English
KJV and YLT turn it into a thing ('waves', 'breakers'). ESV emphasises the noise ('roaring'). BSB and NIV-type renderings ('pounding waves') keep both the blow and the wave. The Hebrew word is about the act and sound of smashing more than the shape of the water.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Greek Septuagint renders it epitripseis, 'crushings, smashings', which supports the 'crush' root. Latin tradition has fluctus, 'waves'.
Where it appears
Psalms · 1
-
Psalm 93:3 דָּכְיָֽם׃ pounding their
The floodwaters have risen, O LORD; the rivers have raised their voice; the seas lift up their pounding waves.
Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. It comes from a root meaning 'crush, beat to pieces', so it means the smashing blow and roar of breakers. It is not simply 'waves': it names the violence and noise of their impact.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.