Hebrew word · H4624

מַעֲקֶה

ma'akeh

parapet

A barrier or low wall around the edge of a flat roof: a parapet or railing. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Where the word comes from is uncertain.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) parapet

1a) a low wall at the edge of a balcony, roof, etc., or along the sides of a bridge etc.,

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 Deuteronomy 22:8

Range of meaning

A barrier or low wall around the edge of a flat roof: a parapet or railing. It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Where the word comes from is uncertain. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) record it as a hapax, meaning a word found only once, and define it from context; any suggested link to a root meaning 'hold back, restrain' is a guess.

Against the English

BSB/WEB 'railing', YLT/ESV/NIV/NASB 'parapet', KJV 'battlement'. 'Railing' and 'parapet' are accurate. 'Battlement' now suggests a notched military wall on a castle, which this is not.

How it drifted

In 1611 'battlement' could mean a parapet in general. Since then it has narrowed to castle crenellations, the tooth-shaped tops of fortress walls.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders it στεφάνη (stephanē, 'crown, rim, coping'), picturing a band running round the top of the house. The Vulgate paraphrases it as murum tecti per circuitum, 'a wall of the roof all around.' In Mishnaic and later Hebrew, maʿaqeh is the standard technical term. Rabbinic law (Sifre Deuteronomy; b. Ketubot 6a? debated; codified in Maimonides, Laws of Murder and Preserving Life 11) requires it to be at least ten handbreadths (about a metre) high and strong enough to lean on.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 22:8 מַעֲקֶ֖ה a parapet

    If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

    Here: A low wall or railing around the edge of a flat roof. This is the only place the word occurs in the Hebrew Bible. Its meaning is clear from context and from later Hebrew.

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