Hebrew word · H5064

נָגַר

nigerah

to pour

Niphal (passive/reflexive): to be poured out, spill, flow, run (water, 2 Samuel 14:14; streams, Micah 1:4; tears, Lamentations 3:49; wealth flowing away, Job 20:28). For this verse lexicons such as HALOT and BDB give 'be stretched out' (of the hand).

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

What it means

1) to pour, run, flow, pour down

1a) (Niphal)

1a1) to be poured, be spilt

1a2) to pour oneself, flow, trickle

1a3) to vanish (fig.)

1a4) to be stretched out

1b) (Hiphil) to pour down

1c) (Hophal) to melt

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 Psalm 77:2

Range of meaning

Niphal (passive/reflexive): to be poured out, spill, flow, run (water, 2 Samuel 14:14; streams, Micah 1:4; tears, Lamentations 3:49; wealth flowing away, Job 20:28). For this verse lexicons such as HALOT and BDB give 'be stretched out' (of the hand).

Against the English

Most modern versions say 'stretched out' and so lose the liquid image of something poured out without stopping. The KJV's 'my sore ran' keeps the flowing idea but turns the hand into a running wound.

Used elsewhere in the period

The closest parallel is Lamentations 3:49: 'My eye pours out (niggerah) and does not stop, without ceasing (hafugot)'. It uses the same verb and the same root as tafug (pug). That parallel has led some scholars to suggest reading 'my eye' here. The Targum's 'my wound flowed' explains the flowing verb by making the hand a wound.

From the study of 2 Samuel 14:14

Range of meaning

nāgar in this passive form means 'be poured out, flow away, run off' (compare Ps 77:2; Lam 3:49 'my eye pours down'). Water poured on the ground cannot be gathered back up.

Against the English

'Water poured out / spilt on the ground' is accurate. 'Which cannot be recovered' (BSB) gives the point well. 'Which cannot be gathered up again' (KJV, WEB) keeps the picture of gathering.

Used elsewhere in the period

Pouring out water is an image of life draining away in Psalm 22:14 ('I am poured out like water', though with a different verb) and of weakness and death in Job 14:11–12 ('as waters fail from the sea… so man lies down and does not rise').

From the study of Ezekiel 35:5

Range of meaning

Basic sense: to flow or run, used of liquid. The passive forms mean 'be poured out, spilled' (water spilled on the ground, 2 Sam 14:14; water pouring down a slope, Mic 1:4). The causative form used here means 'pour out, tip down'. With 'onto the hands of the sword' it is a fixed idiom: 'hand someone over to violent death'.

Against the English

BSB, NIV, ESV, WEB and NASB say 'delivered/given over'. This is accurate, but it loses the liquid picture. KJV 'hast shed [the blood of]' keeps the pouring image but has to add 'the blood of' in italics. YLT's 'dost saw' seems to come from linking the verb to a different root (the one behind mĕgērâ, 'saw'). Hebrew scholarship does not follow that link.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same idiom appears in Jer 18:21 ('pour them out onto the hands of the sword') and Ps 63:10 [Heb 63:11] ('they will be poured onto the hands of the sword'). So the phrase was standard poetic and prophetic language for handing people to slaughter.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 14:14 הַנִּגָּרִ֣ים which are spilled

    For we will surely die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life, but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.

    Here: Water that has run out and soaked into the dry ground. YLT's 'running down' keeps the sense of flowing. The point is that it is gone and cannot be taken back.

Job · 1

  1. Job 20:28 נִ֝גָּר֗וֹת torrents

    The possessions of his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s wrath.

Psalms · 3

  1. Psalm 63:10 יַגִּירֻ֥הוּ people will pour him

    They will fall to the power of the sword; they will become a portion for foxes.

  2. Psalm 75:8 וַיַּגֵּ֪ר and he has poured out

    For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.

    Here: 'He has poured.' The pouring is told as already done: the host has tipped the cup and the drinking is now under way.

  3. Psalm 77:2 נִ֭גְּרָה it was stretched out

    In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

    Here: The verb usually describes liquid spilling or flowing (water on the ground, 2 Samuel 14:14; tears from the eye, Lamentations 3:49). Applied to a hand it gives a striking picture: the hand reaching out unceasingly, as if poured out toward God. Lexicons give 'stretched out' for this verse.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 18:21 וְהַגִּרֵם֮ and pour them

    Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

    Here: "And spill them out": a causative form of a verb used for water running away or poured out. The people themselves ("them") are tipped out, like liquid from a jar, into the sword's grip.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:49 נִגְּרָ֛ה it has poured itself

    My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 35:5 וַתַּגֵּ֥ר and you poured

    Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,

    Here: 'And you poured out / tipped over'. This causative form of a verb used for spilling water is an idiom for handing people over to violent death. The picture is Israel's people tipped out like liquid onto the sword.

Micah · 2

  1. Micah 1:4 מֻגָּרִ֥ים poured out

    The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

    Here: A passive form: water that has been poured or spilled and runs off. Elsewhere the verb describes water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again (2 Sam 14:14). Once it is let go, there is no stopping it.

  2. Micah 1:6 וְהִגַּרְתִּ֤י and I will pour down

    Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.

    Here: The verb is used of liquid poured or running off. Verse 4 uses it of 'waters poured down a steep slope'. Here God pours Samaria's stones down the hillside as if they were water, so the walls come down as easily as water runs.

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