Hebrew word · H5143
נֶ֫זֶק
benezek
injury
Damage, injury, loss. In Biblical Hebrew it occurs only here. It is a borrowing from Aramaic, where it is a standard administrative term for harm to the crown's interests.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
injury, damage
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
- Range of meaning
Damage, injury, loss. In Biblical Hebrew it occurs only here. It is a borrowing from Aramaic, where it is a standard administrative term for harm to the crown's interests.
- Against the English
KJV 'the king's damage,' WEB 'the king's loss,' YLT 'the loss of the king,' NASB 'annoyance,' NIV and BSB render it as 'disturbing' or 'burdening' the king. The translations divide between real loss (revenue, subjects, his queen) and bother or inconvenience.
- How it drifted
KJV's 'countervail the king's damage' is now opaque. 'Countervail' (to offset or make up for) is rarely used, and 'damage' sounds physical to a modern reader rather than meaning a loss to royal interests.
- Used elsewhere in the period
In the Aramaic letter of Ezra 4:13, Persian officials warn that Jerusalem will stop paying tribute and 'the royal revenue will be damaged' (a related form, hanzeq). 4:15 says the city was 'damaging to kings,' and 4:22 asks 'why should damage grow to the hurt of the kings?' It is a Persian-court term for loss to the king's treasury and authority.
Where it appears
Esther · 1
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Esther 7:4 בְּנֵ֥זֶק for [the] injury of
For my people and I have been sold out to destruction, death, and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as menservants and maidservants, I would have remained silent, because no such distress would justify burdening the king.”
Here: A word borrowed from Aramaic, used in Persian-period documents for harm to royal interests, especially lost revenue (Ezra 4:13, 15, 22). Here it means the king's loss or bother.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.