Hebrew word · H5357

נָקִיק

uvinkikei

cleft

A cleft or crevice in rock.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 07, 2026

What it means

cleft (of a rock)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A cleft or crevice in rock.
Against the English: KJV 'holes', BSB/WEB 'clefts'. Both are fine.
Used elsewhere in the period: Jeremiah 13:4 (Jeremiah hides the loincloth 'in a cleft of the rock') and Jeremiah 16:16 (God sends hunters to hunt people 'from the clefts of the rocks'). Rock crevices were where Israelites hid from invaders (1 Samuel 13:6; Isaiah 2:19–21 uses other words for the same idea).

Range of meaning: נָקִיק (nəqîq) means a cleft or crevice and occurs only three times (Isaiah 7:19; Jeremiah 13:4; 16:16). סֶלַע (selaʿ) means a crag, cliff or rocky height, a strong rocky place (compare 'the LORD is my selaʿ', Psalm 18:2).
Against the English: KJV/YLT 'a hole of the rock', WEB/ESV 'cleft of the rock', BSB 'a crevice of the rocks'. These are all fair. 'Cleft of the rock' may remind hymn-singers of 'Rock of Ages, cleft for me' and of Exodus 33:22 ('a cleft of the rock', which uses a different Hebrew word, נִקְרָה niqrāh). But the image here is not protection. It is a damp crack where cloth rots.
Used elsewhere in the period: In Jeremiah 16:16 God sends hunters to drag Judeans out of 'the clefts of the rocks'. In Isaiah 7:19 invading swarms settle 'in the clefts of the rocks'. In both, the word belongs to scenes of invasion and judgment in rough terrain.

Range of meaning: 'Clefts of the crags': narrow cracks and holes in cliff rock, the most remote hiding places in Judah's limestone hill country.
Against the English: KJV 'holes of the rocks', WEB/BSB 'clefts of the rocks'. These are all accurate.
Used elsewhere in the period: Jer 13:4: Jeremiah hides the linen loincloth 'in a cleft of the rock' near the Euphrates, and it rots there, an acted-out sign of Judah's ruin. Isa 2:19–21: people flee 'into the caves of the rocks… the clefts of the crags' from the terror of the LORD. Jer 49:16 / Obad 3–4: Edom, 'you who live in the clefts of the rock… from there I will bring you down'. Israelites hid in caves and crags during invasions (Judg 6:2; 1 Sam 13:6).

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 7:19 וּבִנְקִיקֵ֖י and in [the] clefts of

And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes and watering holes.

Here: Cracks and crevices in rock. These were the classic places people hid from invaders (compare Jeremiah 16:16, 'from the clefts of the rocks'). Even the refuges will be full of the swarm.

Jeremiah · 2

Jeremiah 13:4 בִּנְקִ֥יק in [the] cleft of

“Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go at once to Perath and hide it there in a crevice of the rocks.”

Here: 'In a cleft of': a narrow crack or fissure in rock. The word is rare, found elsewhere only in Isaiah 7:19 and Jeremiah 16:16, both times as a hiding place in rough country.
Jeremiah 16:16 וּמִנְּקִיקֵ֖י and from [the] clefts of

But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.

Here: 'And from the clefts of': narrow cracks in rock. A rare word, used only here, in Jer 13:4 and in Isa 7:19. It is the last and smallest hiding place.

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