Hebrew word · H5033

נֵ֫בֶךְ

nivkhei-

spring

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (HALOT, DCH) give "spring, source," mainly on the strength of the Ugaritic texts, where the god El lives "at the source (mbk) of the two rivers, in the midst of the springs (apq) of the two deeps (thmtm)" (KTU 1.4 IV 20–22 and parallels).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

spring, springs

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 38:16

Range of meaning

Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (HALOT, DCH) give "spring, source," mainly on the strength of the Ugaritic texts, where the god El lives "at the source (mbk) of the two rivers, in the midst of the springs (apq) of the two deeps (thmtm)" (KTU 1.4 IV 20–22 and parallels). Job 28:11 has a similar-looking word (מִבְּכִי, traditionally "from the weeping/trickling of rivers"), which many scholars read as the same "sources" word.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, ESV and NIV say "springs." BSB says "vents," a technical-sounding word that many modern readers will connect with seafloor geology. YLT keeps "springs."

How it drifted

"Springs" is accurate. "Vents" (BSB) is a recent choice that can import a modern scientific picture, hydrothermal vents, which the word itself does not specify.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ugaritic mbk/nbk in El's dwelling-place formula, set alongside thmtm, the Ugaritic counterpart of Hebrew təhôm, as here. The same pairing of "sources" and "deep" shows up in Hebrew as "fountains of the deep" (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Prov 8:24, 28). LXX renders πηγὴν θαλάσσης "spring of the sea." Vulgate paraphrases as profunda maris "the depths of the sea."

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 38:16 נִבְכֵי־ [the] springs of

    Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?

    Here: A word found only here in the Bible; its sense comes mainly from its Ugaritic relative, which names the sources of the cosmic rivers. It pictures the places where water wells up from below to feed the sea.

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