כִּנְעָה

From the study of Jeremiah 10:17

Range of meaning

This word occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from context, related words and old translations. Modern lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give 'bundle, pack': goods pressed or bound together for carrying. BDB links it to the root k-n-ʿ, 'to be low, bent down, subdued.' That fits either a bundle packed down small or something carried bent over. Context decides it: a woman under siege is told to pick it up off the ground and leave, so it is the exile's pack.

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'wares' and YLT has 'merchandise,' which sound like a trader's stock. BSB and NIV have 'belongings,' which is accurate but loses the picture of one small bundle. ESV and NASB have 'bundle,' the closest to the likely sense.

How it drifted

'Wares/merchandise' comes from linking kinʿāh to kənaʿan, 'Canaan.' 'Canaanite' could mean 'trader' in Hebrew (Hos 12:7; Zeph 1:11; Prov 31:24), so medieval Jewish interpreters and then the KJV heard 'your trade goods.' Jerome's Latin took the root's sense of 'being brought low' and wrote confusionem tuam, 'your shame.' Each rendering follows a different guess about where the word comes from.

Used elsewhere in the period

Nowhere else in biblical Hebrew. The nearest parallel in idea is Ezekiel 12:3–7, where the prophet acts out exile by packing 'baggage for exile' (kəlê gôlāh) and carrying it on his shoulder. Assyrian palace reliefs of the fall of Lachish (701 BC) show Judean deportees walking away with sacks over their shoulders.