Hebrew word · H5008

נָאַק

vena'ak

to groan

To groan or moan in extreme pain or distress. It is a sound forced out of the body, not a spoken complaint. The related noun nəʾāqâ means "groaning".

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

What it means

(Qal) to groan

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 Job 24:12

Range of meaning

To groan or moan in extreme pain or distress. It is a sound forced out of the body, not a spoken complaint. The related noun nəʾāqâ means "groaning".

Against the English

"Groan" (BSB, KJV, WEB, YLT) is accurate. English "groan" can also mean mild annoyance, but in Hebrew this is the sound of the dying.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb occurs only here and in Ezek 30:24, where Pharaoh will "groan before him with the groans of a mortally wounded man (ḥālāl)". That passage pairs nāʾaq with the same word Job uses next. The noun appears in Exod 2:24 and 6:5, where God hears the groaning of Israel in Egypt and remembers his covenant.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 24:12 יִנְאָ֗קוּ they groan

    From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

    Here: The deep, involuntary groan of someone in mortal pain. The verb appears only here and in Ezek 30:24, which describes "the groans of a mortally wounded man". The ongoing verb form shows groaning that keeps going and does not stop.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 30:24 וְנָאַ֛ק and he will groan

    I will strengthen the arms of Babylon’s king and place My sword in his hand, but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, who will groan before him like a mortally wounded man.

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