Hebrew word · H4743

מָקַק

yimaku

to rot

In the passive-reflexive form (niphal) it means to rot, fester, putrefy, or waste away. The picture is slow decay, not a clean vanishing.

Appears 10 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to decay, pine away, rot, fester

1a) (Niphal)

1a1) to fester (of wounds)

1a2) to rot, rot away

1a3) to moulder away

1a4) to pine away

1b) (Hiphil) to cause to rot

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 34:4

Range of meaning

In the passive-reflexive form (niphal) it means to rot, fester, putrefy, or waste away. It is used of wounds that stink and fester (Psalm 38:5), of flesh, eyes and tongues rotting (Zechariah 14:12), and of people who 'waste away in their iniquity' under judgment (Leviticus 26:39; Ezekiel 4:17; 24:23; 33:10). The picture is slow decay, not a clean vanishing.

Against the English

KJV, BSB and WEB say 'dissolved'. NASB says 'wear away', NLT 'melt away', and ESV 'rot away', which is closest. To a modern ear 'dissolve' suggests sugar disappearing harmlessly into water. The Hebrew is the vocabulary of corpses and gangrene.

How it drifted

KJV's 'dissolved' may follow the Latin tabescet ('will waste away, melt') and the Greek tēkesthai ('melt'). 'Dissolve' in 1611 could carry the sense of breaking down or decomposing. In modern English it has become a neutral, almost chemical word.

Used elsewhere in the period

BDB and HALOT give 'rot, fester, moulder away'. The Greek Old Testament (LXX) renders it with tēkō, 'melt, waste away', and it may have read the line together with verse 3's 'melt'. In the Qumran Isaiah scroll this clause seems to be replaced by 'the valleys will be split', echoing Micah 1:4.

From the study of Leviticus 26:39

Range of meaning

In the passive form used here: to rot, fester, decay, dissolve, waste away. Related nouns (maq, Isa 3:24; 5:24) mean rottenness or the stench of decay. It describes organic breakdown: wounds that fester, flesh that rots, a body melting away.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say "pine away" and YLT says "consume away." Both lean toward emotional longing or slow consumption. NASB-type renderings ("rot away") are more physical and closer to the word. BSB splits the one verb into two English verbs ("waste away… decay"), which hides that the same word is repeated.

How it drifted

"Pine away" in older English meant wasting from suffering and was a fair rendering in 1611. Today "pine" mostly suggests homesick longing ("pining for home"). That turns a picture of festering decay into one of nostalgia.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 38:5 (Heb. v.6): "my wounds stink and fester" (namaqqu) because of my folly. Zech 14:12: flesh, eyes and tongue "rot" in their sockets. Isa 34:4: the host of heaven "rots away." Ezek 4:17 and 24:23 reuse this verse almost word for word ("you will rot away in your iniquities"). Ezek 33:10 has the exiles quoting it back in despair: "our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away in them; how then can we live?"

From the study of Zechariah 14:12

Range of meaning

To rot, fester, decay, waste away, pine away. Used of festering wounds (Ps 38:5, "my wounds stink and fester"), and figuratively of people wasting away under guilt and judgment (Lev 26:39; Ezek 4:17; 24:23; 33:10). Related nouns describe rottenness and decay (e.g. maq, Isa 3:24; 5:24).

Against the English

BSB, NIV, ESV, NASB: "rot." KJV, WEB: "consume away," which to a modern ear suggests burning or being eaten up, though in older English "consume" meant "waste away, decay." The Septuagint chose tēkō, "melt, dissolve," and the Vulgate tabesco, "waste away, putrefy."

How it drifted

"Consume" has shifted toward fire and eating ("consumed by flames"), so KJV readers can picture incineration. The Hebrew is the vocabulary of decay and festering, not of burning or vaporising.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lev 26:39 (covenant curse): those left "will rot away (yimmaqqu) in their iniquity." Ezek 24:23 and 33:10 use it of exiles "wasting away" in their sins. The causative form here (hameq, "make rot") occurs nowhere else.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 2

  1. Leviticus 26:39 יִמַּ֙קּוּ֙ יִמָּֽקּוּ׃ they will rot away

    Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

    Here: "They will rot away." It is used of wounds that fester (Ps 38:5) and flesh that decays (Zech 14:12). The picture is slow decay from the inside, not sudden death.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 38:5 נָ֭מַקּוּ they fester

    My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 34:4 וְנָמַ֙קּוּ֙ and they will rot away

    All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.

    Here: 'And they will rot away.' The word is used of festering wounds and of eyes rotting in their sockets. Coming right after the unburied, stinking corpses of verse 3, it pictures the stars decaying like dead bodies. It also sounds like nāmassû, 'melt', in verse 3.

Ezekiel · 3

  1. Ezekiel 4:17 וְנָמַ֖קּוּ and they will waste away

    So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

  2. Ezekiel 24:23 וּנְמַקֹּתֶם֙ and you will waste away

    Your turbans will remain on your heads and your sandals on your feet. You will not mourn or weep, but you will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan among yourselves.

  3. Ezekiel 33:10 נְמַקִּ֖ים [are] wasting away

    Now as for you, son of man, tell the house of Israel that this is what they have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy upon us, and we are wasting away because of them! How can we live?’

Zechariah · 3

  1. Zechariah 14:12 הָמֵ֣ק׀ תִּמַּ֣קְנָה תִּמַּ֥ק he will cause to rot, they will rot, it will rot

    And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

    Here: A causative form ("to make rot"), the only time this root is used this way in the Bible. It stands as a bare infinitive with an unspoken subject (the LORD), giving a terse, almost exclamatory effect: "rotting, his flesh!"

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