Hebrew word · H4718

מַקֶּבֶת

makevet

hammer

Maqqevet comes from the root nqb, "to pierce, bore"; in the sense "hole, cavity" it occurs only here. Bor is a pit or cistern cut in rock, and also a dungeon or the pit of death in other contexts. Naqar means to bore or gouge out (eyes, 1 Sam 11:2; Judg 16:21; ravens pecking out an eye, Prov 30:17).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

hammer, perforator

Also means: maq.qa.vah (מַקָּבָה "hammer" H4717)

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 Isaiah 51:1

Range of meaning

Maqqevet comes from the root nqb, "to pierce, bore"; in the sense "hole, cavity" it occurs only here. Bor is a pit or cistern cut in rock, and also a dungeon or the pit of death in other contexts. Naqar means to bore or gouge out (eyes, 1 Sam 11:2; Judg 16:21; ravens pecking out an eye, Prov 30:17). Its passive form occurs only here.

Against the English

KJV "the hole of the pit" is literal. Modern versions say "quarry", which captures the picture but loses the rawness of a bored-out hollow. Because "pit" can suggest a grave or prison, KJV readers sometimes hear rescue "from the pit". The point here is origin, not rescue.

Used elsewhere in the period

Iron Age Judah was full of rock-cut cisterns and quarries. Jerusalem stands on limestone that was quarried extensively, and Deut 6:11 and Jer 2:13 speak of "hewn cisterns". Several commentators note that the root nqb also gives neqevah, "female". That makes "bored-out hollow" a possible veiled allusion to Sarah's womb, paired in v. 2 with Sarah "who brought you forth in labor". The allusion is suggestive but not certain.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 4:21 הַמַּקֶּ֣בֶת the hammer

    But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 51:1 מַקֶּ֥בֶת [the] excavation of

    “Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.

    Here: "The hollow, the bored-out place." It comes from a root meaning "to pierce, bore". In this sense the word appears only here, while a near-identical noun means "hammer". It names the cavity left in the rock where stone was cut away.

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