Hebrew word · H406

אִכָּר

'ikar

farmer

A farmer or plowman. Usually it means a working field-hand rather than a landowner, often someone working another's land. It is a loanword from Akkadian 'ikkaru' (ultimately Sumerian 'engar'), which in Mesopotamian texts often means a hired or dependent agricultural worker.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) plowman, husbandman, farmer

1a) working the land, yet not owning any of it

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 Amos 5:16

Range of meaning

A farmer or plowman. Usually it means a working field-hand rather than a landowner, often someone working another's land. It is a loanword from Akkadian 'ikkaru' (ultimately Sumerian 'engar'), which in Mesopotamian texts often means a hired or dependent agricultural worker.

Against the English

BSB/WEB 'farmer' is fair but can suggest an independent landowner. KJV 'husbandman' meant a farmer in 1611 but now misleads (see drift). The Hebrew points to the ordinary laborer behind the plow.

How it drifted

KJV 'husbandman' (from Old Norse/Old English 'one who keeps a house and land') meant a tiller of the soil. 'Husband' has since narrowed to 'married man'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 14:4 (the ikkārîm are ashamed because the ground is cracked); Jer 31:24; 51:23; Joel 1:11 ('be ashamed, O farmers… for the harvest of the field has perished'); Isa 61:5; 2 Chr 26:10 (King Uzziah, a contemporary of Amos, kept ikkārîm and vinedressers).

From the study of Jeremiah 51:23

Range of meaning

A plowman or field laborer, someone who works the soil, often for others. It appears in Isa 61:5 (foreigners as your plowmen), Jer 14:4, Jer 31:24, Joel 1:11, Amos 5:16 and 2 Chr 26:10.

Against the English

KJV's 'husbandman' meant 'tiller of the soil' in 1611. Today it can sound like it has something to do with being a husband. 'Farmer' (BSB, WEB) is clearer, but it can suggest a landowner, while the word often means a hired or dependent plowman.

How it drifted

'Husbandman' (from husbandry, 'farming') has dropped out of everyday English.

Used elsewhere in the period

A loanword from Akkadian ikkaru, 'plowman, agricultural worker', which is common in Babylonian estate records. Jer 31:24 pairs the same two groups as this verse, 'farmers (ʾikkārîm) and those who go about with flocks', as a picture of restored Judah.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 26:10 אִכָּרִ֣ים farmers

    Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 61:5 אִכָּרֵיכֶ֖ם [will be] farmers your

    Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.

Jeremiah · 3

  1. Jeremiah 14:4 אִכָּרִ֖ים farmers

    The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

  2. Jeremiah 31:24 אִכָּרִ֕ים farmers

    And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks,

  3. Jeremiah 51:23 אִכָּ֣ר a farmer

    With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock; with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen; with you I shatter the governors and officials.

    Here: A farm worker who tills the ground, often a hired or dependent plowman rather than a rich landowner. The word was borrowed from Akkadian (ikkaru, 'plowman'), the language of Babylon.

Joel · 1

  1. Joel 1:11 אִכָּרִ֗ים O farmers

    Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 5:16 אִכָּר֙ a farmer

    Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

    Here: A field laborer or plowman, borrowed from Akkadian 'ikkaru'. The countryside worker is pulled in from the fields to mourn, either because there are too many dead for the usual mourners or because the land itself has been struck.

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