Hebrew word · H404

אָכַף

'akhaf

to crave

Used only here as a verb in the Hebrew Bible. Meaning is worked out from related words. The noun ʾekhef in Job 33:7 means 'pressure, burden' ('my pressure will not be heavy upon you'). Hence 'press, urge, drive'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) press, urge, bend

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to crave

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 16:26

Range of meaning

Used only here as a verb in the Hebrew Bible. Meaning is worked out from related words. The noun ʾekhef in Job 33:7 means 'pressure, burden' ('my pressure will not be heavy upon you'). Later Hebrew and Aramaic use the root for pressing or urging, and lexicons compare Akkadian ekēpu, 'to press on, approach'. Hence 'press, urge, drive'.

Against the English

ESV/WEB 'urges him on', BSB/NIV 'drives him (on)' and KJV 'craveth it of him' all catch the pressure. KJV moves the sense toward 'crave'. YLT's 'caused him to bend over it' is an older etymological guess (the image of a burden that bows the back) and is not widely followed.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 33:7 (noun ʾekhef). Rabbinic Hebrew uses ʾukaf for a pack-saddle, the thing pressed onto a beast of burden, which may lie behind the picture. Some uncertainty remains because the verb appears only once.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 16:26 אָכַ֖ף it presses

    A worker’s appetite works for him because his hunger drives him onward.

    Here: The verb appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Related words point to pressing or bearing down, so the mouth 'presses on him' or 'urges him on', like a driver pushing a work animal.

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