Hebrew word · H3417

יָרַק

yarak

to spit

The verb yaraq means 'to spit'. It is rare in the Hebrew Bible: Lev 15:8 (the spit of a man with a discharge makes a person unclean), Deut 25:9 (the widow spits in the face of the brother-in-law who refuses to marry her), and here. It is not just rudeness.

Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Qal) to spit

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 Numbers 12:14

Range of meaning

The verb yaraq means 'to spit'. It is rare in the Hebrew Bible: Lev 15:8 (the spit of a man with a discharge makes a person unclean), Deut 25:9 (the widow spits in the face of the brother-in-law who refuses to marry her), and here. The related noun roq ('spittle') appears in Job 30:10 ('they do not hold back from spitting at my face') and Isa 50:6 ('I did not hide my face from disgrace and spitting'). Every time, spitting at a person is a public act that puts disgrace on them. It is not just rudeness.

Against the English

English 'had but spit' (KJV, BSB, WEB) catches the emphasis of the doubled verb well. A modern reader may still hear something personal and nasty rather than a recognised social act of condemnation.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 25:9 is the closest parallel. In a legal ceremony before the elders, the widow spits in (or, as the later rabbis read it, before) the man's face. His house is then known in Israel by a shaming name. The custom of spitting to put disgrace on someone is widely known in the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world. In the Gospels Jesus is spat on as part of his public humiliation (Mark 14:65; 15:19), in line with Isa 50:6.

Where it appears

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 12:14 יָרֹ֤ק יָרַק֙ certainly <to spit>, he had spat

    But the LORD answered Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Let her be confined outside the camp for seven days; after that she may be brought back in.”

    Here: The verb's basic form (the infinitive absolute) set before the finite verb. This doubling makes the action emphatic: 'actually spat', or 'had but spat'.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 25:9 וְיָרְקָ֖ה and she will spit

    his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”

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