Hebrew word · H5217
נָכָא
nike'u
to whip
The root nkʾ means 'to strike, beat, crush'. It is probably a by-form of nkh, the common verb for 'strike'. This passive form appears only here. Related adjectives describe a 'stricken' or 'broken' spirit (Prov 15:13; 17:22; 18:14) and the 'stricken' of Moab (Isa 16:7).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
(Niph) to strike, scourge, smite
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
The root nkʾ means 'to strike, beat, crush'. It is probably a by-form of nkh, the common verb for 'strike'. This passive form appears only here. Related adjectives describe a 'stricken' or 'broken' spirit (Prov 15:13; 17:22; 18:14) and the 'stricken' of Moab (Isa 16:7).
- Against the English
WEB 'flogged out', YLT 'smitten from' and ESV 'whipped out' keep the physical violence. BSB and NIV 'driven off/out' keep the expulsion but lose the blows. KJV 'viler than the earth' turns the verb into a statement about worth ('beaten down, abased') and the preposition into a comparison.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Lexicons (HALOT, BDB) give 'be whipped/scourged out' for this verse. In the Hebrew Bible the verb occurs only here; the root is better known from the adjective nāḵēʾ ('stricken').
Where it appears
Job · 1
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Job 30:8 נִ֝כְּא֗וּ they have been scourged
A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
Here: A passive verb ('they were whipped/beaten out'). It is the only time this verb appears in the Bible. It pictures people driven away with blows, as you would chase off a thief or a stray animal (compare v. 5).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.