Hebrew word · H4516

מַנְעַמִּים

beman'ameihem

delicacy

'Pleasant things, delicacies'. It occurs only here and comes from the root naʿem, 'to be pleasant, lovely, sweet'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

delicacies, dainties

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 Psalm 141:4

Range of meaning

'Pleasant things, delicacies'. It occurs only here and comes from the root naʿem, 'to be pleasant, lovely, sweet'.

Against the English

KJV 'dainties'; BSB 'delicacies'; YLT 'pleasant things'. All accurate about the food. None of them shows that eating at someone's table was a social and moral bond.

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 23:1-3, 6-8 offers close wisdom parallels, warning against the 'delicacies' (a related word, mat'ammim) of a ruler or a grudging host because they are 'deceptive food'. Compare Prov 4:17 ('they eat the bread of wickedness') and Daniel 1:8, where refusing the king's fine food is a matter of loyalty and identity. The Septuagint read the word as persons, 'their chosen ones'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 141:4 בְּמַנְעַמֵּיהֶֽם׃ in delicacies their

    Do not let my heart be drawn to any evil thing or take part in works of wickedness with men who do iniquity; let me not feast on their delicacies.

    Here: 'Of their delicacies'. The word appears only here and comes from the root for 'pleasant, sweet'. It means the fine foods of a rich table, and the attraction is part of the danger.

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