Hebrew word · H5289
נַ֫עַר
hana'ar
newborn
Elsewhere it means a boy, youth, young man, or servant/attendant, and it is always used of people. A separate root נער means 'to shake (off/out)' (Neh 5:13; Ps 109:23).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
a shaking, scattering
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 Zechariah 11:16
- Range of meaning
Elsewhere it means a boy, youth, young man, or servant/attendant, and it is always used of people. A separate root נער means 'to shake (off/out)' (Neh 5:13; Ps 109:23).
- Against the English
KJV/BSB/NIV/ESV give 'the young'. WEB and NASB give 'the scattered' (following the Greek). YLT gives 'the shaken off'. NRSV-type versions give 'the wandering'.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The LXX has τὸ διεσκορπισμένον, 'the scattered', and the Vulgate has dispersum. Ezekiel 34:4, 16 lists 'the strayed' (הַנִּדַּחַת) and 'the lost' among the uncared-for, which suggests a straying animal fits here.
Where it appears
Zechariah · 1
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Zechariah 11:16 הַנַּ֣עַר the young man
For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.
Here: In the Hebrew text this reads 'the youth/young one'. That word is used of people, not animals, and it breaks the run of feminine forms. So ancient versions read 'the scattered', and many scholars read 'the straying one'. In every reading the point is a vulnerable animal that needs to be gone after.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.