Hebrew word · H3921
לֶ֫כֶד
milakhed
capture
"Capture, being caught." The noun appears only here. Its verb lakad means to catch animals in a trap or net (Amos 3:5; Job 18:9–10 has "a trap seizes him by the heel").
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
a taking, capture
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 Proverbs 3:26
- Range of meaning
"Capture, being caught." The noun appears only here. Its verb lakad means to catch animals in a trap or net (Amos 3:5; Job 18:9–10 has "a trap seizes him by the heel"). It also means to capture cities, to catch people by lot, and to be "caught" by your own words (Prov 6:2) or your own sins (Prov 5:22).
- Against the English
KJV and WEB have "from being taken". BSB has "from the snare". ESV and NASB have "being caught". NIV has "being snared". NLT has "caught in a trap". BSB names the trap itself, while the Hebrew names the act of capture, but the hunting picture is right in all of them.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Only here in the Hebrew Bible. Its verb lakad is common throughout the Bible. Proverbs often uses hunting images: the net spread in sight of a bird (1:17), the gazelle escaping the hunter (6:5), the bird rushing into a snare (7:23).
Where it appears
Proverbs · 1
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Proverbs 3:26 מִלָּֽכֶד׃ from capture
for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from the snare.
Here: "From capture." This noun appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the verb for catching an animal in a trap or taking a city. The picture is a hunter's snare closing on a foot.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.