Hebrew word · H4665
מַפְרֶקֶת
mafrakto
neck
Neck, probably the joint of the neck or the top of the spine. It appears only once in the Hebrew Bible. It likely comes from p-r-q, 'to tear off, break apart, separate' (compare Exod 32:2, 'tear off' earrings).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
neck
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 1 Samuel 4:18
- Range of meaning
Neck, probably the joint of the neck or the top of the spine. It appears only once in the Hebrew Bible. It likely comes from p-r-q, 'to tear off, break apart, separate' (compare Exod 32:2, 'tear off' earrings).
- Against the English
All versions say 'neck'. The word is rare, but nothing is lost in translation.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Found only here in the Hebrew Bible. Later Hebrew uses the word for the nape of the neck or the neck vertebrae, and the Talmud discusses breaking the mafreqet as a fatal injury.
Where it appears
1 Samuel · 1
-
1 Samuel 4:18 מַפְרַקְתּוֹ֙ neck his
As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years.
Here: 'His neck.' This word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It probably comes from the root p-r-q, 'to break off / separate', and so may point to the joint of the neck where the head is set on the spine.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.