Hebrew word · H5235

נֶ֫כֶר

venekher

foreign

A rare noun, found only here and in Job 31:3, where it stands in parallel with 'êd ('calamity'): 'Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and nēker for workers of iniquity?' Lexicons (HALOT, BDB) give 'misfortune, disaster.' The root nkr has two lines of meaning: (a) foreign or strange (nokhri,...

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

What it means

calamity, disaster, misfortune

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 Obadiah 1:12

Range of meaning

A rare noun, found only here and in Job 31:3, where it stands in parallel with 'êd ('calamity'): 'Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and nēker for workers of iniquity?' Lexicons (HALOT, BDB) give 'misfortune, disaster.' The root nkr has two lines of meaning: (a) foreign or strange (nokhri, 'foreigner'), and (b) to recognise or regard. The 'misfortune' sense is often connected with the idea of something alien and hostile happening to you, or being disowned or estranged.

Against the English

KJV 'the day that he became a stranger' follows the root's 'foreign' meaning, probably by way of the Vulgate's 'day of his sojourning/exile.' YLT 'alienation' does the same. NLT reads it as exile to distant lands. BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB say 'misfortune.'

How it drifted

Translations based on the root rather than on usage (Vulgate, then KJV) made it a word about becoming a foreigner. A modern reader of KJV hears emotional estrangement between the brothers, which is not the point.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 31:3, parallel to 'calamity.' Obad 13 replaces it with the common word 'êd ('disaster') three times, which confirms the meaning 'calamity' in context.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 31:3 וְ֝נֵ֗כֶר and misfortune

    Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

Obadiah · 1

  1. Obadiah 1:12 נָכְר֔וֹ misfortune his

    But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.

    Here: 'His misfortune.' A rare noun (elsewhere only Job 31:3) from the root for 'foreign, strange.' It probably means calamity, but it echoes the 'foreigners' (nokhrim) of v. 11 who broke into his gates: his day of being overrun by strangers.

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