Hebrew word · H2141

זָכַךְ

zaku

be clean

To be clean, pure, or clear, with a strong sense of brightness. It is used of shining, unclouded things (Lam 4:7, nobles "brighter than snow"), and in the causative form of washing clean (Job 9:30). Its relative zakah (v. 14) means to be pure or innocent in a moral or legal sense.

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

What it means

1) to be pure, be bright, be clean, be bright, clean

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to be bright, be shining

1a2) to be clean, be pure

1b) (Hiphil) to cleanse, make cleanse, make clean

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 Job 15:15

Range of meaning

To be clean, pure, or clear, with a strong sense of brightness. It is used of shining, unclouded things (Lam 4:7, nobles "brighter than snow"), and in the causative form of washing clean (Job 9:30). Its relative zakah (v. 14) means to be pure or innocent in a moral or legal sense.

Against the English

"Pure" and "clean" are both fine. What English can lose is the picture of brightness. The sky is the most radiant, clearest thing a person sees, and even it falls short.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 25:5 (Bildad): "even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure (lo-zakku) in his eyes," the same verb and the same phrase; Job 9:30; Lam 4:7. Compare Exod 24:10, where the pavement under God is "like the very heaven for clearness."

From the study of Lamentations 4:7

Range of meaning

To be clean, clear, pure, or bright. It is used of things that are physically clean or shining: the stars are not "pure" in God's sight (Job 25:5), and the heavens are not "clean" (Job 15:15). The related adjective zak describes pure oil (Exod 27:20) and pure frankincense (Exod 30:34). In a moral sense it appears in some wisdom texts, e.g. Ps 73:13 and Prov 20:9 ("I have made my heart clean").

Against the English

KJV, WEB and ESV have "purer than snow," which today sounds moral or spiritual. BSB and NIV have "brighter," which catches the visual meaning.

How it drifted

Readers know "whiter than snow" from Psalm 51:7 and Isaiah 1:18, where it means being cleansed from sin. So "purer than snow" gets heard as innocence.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Job 25:5 the related verb is parallel to "the moon does not shine," so the word is about light and clarity. The LXX here uses ἐκαθαριώθησαν ("were cleansed or made clean").

Where it appears

Job · 3

  1. Job 9:30 וַ֝הֲזִכּ֗וֹתִי and I cleansed

    If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,

  2. Job 15:15 זַכּ֥וּ they are pure

    If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,

    Here: "They are (not) pure." The verb has a sense of clearness and brightness (Lam 4:7, "brighter than snow"). Even the shining sky is not spotless by God's standard. It echoes v. 14, where a related verb (zakah) asks how a human could "be pure."

  3. Job 25:5 זַכּ֥וּ they are pure

    If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 4:7 זַכּ֤וּ they were bright

    Her dignitaries were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than rubies, their appearance like sapphires.

    Here: Here this means physically clean, clear and shining, the look of well-kept, healthy skin. It is not about moral innocence. The word starts with zayin, the seventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet, because this verse is the seventh in the chapter's alphabetic poem.

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