נֹקֵד

From the study of 2 Kings 3:4

Range of meaning

A person who owns, breeds or manages flocks of sheep and goats. The word is rare, appearing only twice in the Hebrew Bible: here and in Amos 1:1, where Amos was 'among the nōqədîm of Tekoa'. It is linked to a root for 'speckled' (nāqōd, as in Jacob's speckled flocks, Genesis 30–31), but its usage is about managing flocks, not colouring. It covers a range from flock-owner to flock-overseer, often with administrative standing.

Against the English

KJV and YLT have 'sheepmaster', and BSB, ESV, NASB and WEB have 'sheep breeder'. Both are good. NIV's 'raised sheep' is accurate but sounds more like a hobby or a family farm. The supplied dictionary gloss 'shepherd' is too small. In modern English a shepherd is a lone worker tending sheep, which is a different picture from a king who controls a flock economy.

How it drifted

English Bibles use 'shepherd' for the much more common Hebrew word rōʿeh. When nōqēd is collapsed into 'shepherd', the sense of ownership and scale disappears.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Ugaritic, a language closely related to Hebrew (c. 1300 BC), the same word nqd appears. The colophon (the scribe's closing note) of the Baal myth tablets calls Ilimilku's patron Attenu 'chief of priests, chief of nqdm'. That makes it a title for high officials who ran temple or palace herds. Akkadian nāqidu similarly refers to herd managers in temple and palace records. The Septuagint does not translate the word; it spells it out as nōkēd.

From the study of Amos 1:1

Range of meaning

A breeder or keeper of small livestock (sheep and goats). It is a rare technical term, not the everyday word for shepherd, which is roʿeh (used in v. 2). Some link it to naqod, 'speckled', as in Jacob's flocks (Genesis 30:32), which would make it 'a breeder of a particular kind of sheep'. That etymology is uncertain.

Against the English

The KJV and WEB 'herdmen/herdsmen' suggests cattle, which the word does not mean. 'Shepherds' (common in modern versions) is close but blurs the difference from roʿeh. 'Sheepherders' (BSB) and 'sheep breeder' (some modern versions) are nearer.

How it drifted

Popular retellings collapse the word into the plain image of a poor shepherd boy. The rare technical term and its parallels suggest a role that could include owning or managing flocks.

Used elsewhere in the period

In 2 Kings 3:4 Mesha, king of Moab, is a noqed who paid Israel tribute of 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams. That is a man of great wealth in flocks. Mesha is also probably the king named in the Moabite Stone inscription. In the Ugaritic texts from Late Bronze Age Syria, nqdm appear as an organised class and sometimes under a 'chief' (rb nqdm) listed alongside the chief of priests, which suggests managers of temple or royal flocks (see Craigie 1982). In Akkadian, nāqidu means a herder, often contracted to tend others' animals for a temple or estate.