Hebrew word · H5362

נָקַף

takifu

to surround

Hebrew has two roots spelled נקף. (1) 'To go around, encircle, complete a cycle'. Job 1:5 uses it for feast-days that had 'gone their round', and Isa 29:1 for festivals that 'come around'. (2) 'To strike off, cut down, knock away'. The form here is the intensive stem (Piel).

Appears 19 times in 19 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to go around, compass, round

1a) (Qal) to go around

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to go around, surround, encompass, enclose

1b2) to make the round, complete the circuit

1b3) to make round, round off

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 Job 19:26

Range of meaning

Hebrew has two roots spelled נקף. (1) 'To go around, encircle, complete a cycle'. Job 1:5 uses it for feast-days that had 'gone their round', and Isa 29:1 for festivals that 'come around'. (2) 'To strike off, cut down, knock away'. Isa 10:34 uses it for cutting down forest thickets, and a related noun means the beating of olive branches (Isa 17:6; 24:13). The form here is the intensive stem (Piel). In the second sense that gives 'strike off, hack away'.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, NIV and ESV say 'destroyed', which is accurate but flat. 'Struck off' or 'flayed' keeps the violent, physical picture. The KJV says '[worms] destroy', and the worms are its own addition. YLT says 'compassed' (surrounded), following the 'go around' root as the Vulgate did.

How it drifted

Older interpreters took the 'go around' root because it allowed a picture of being clothed in skin again at the resurrection (Vulgate: 'I shall be surrounded again with my skin'). English Bibles from the Reformation era filled the gap with 'worms destroy this body'. That turned a picture of skin struck off by disease into a picture of a corpse decaying in the grave.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 10:34 (Piel, felling a forest). The noun noqef, 'olive-beating', is in Isa 17:6 and 24:13. The 'go around' root is in Job 1:5, Isa 29:1 and Lev 19:27, where 'round off' refers to cutting the hair at the sides of the head. HALOT and BDB list the two roots separately and put Job 19:26 under 'strike off'.

From the study of Joshua 6:11

Range of meaning

Go around, encircle, surround. In the causative form it means to ring or close in on something, often with hostile intent (2 Kgs 6:14, an army 'surrounded the city'; Ps 22:16, 'evildoers encircle me'). It can also be neutral or festive (Ps 48:12) or describe a cycle completing itself (Isa 29:1, 'let the feasts run their round').

Against the English

Translations usually render it 'circling it' or 'going about it,' which is accurate. What English cannot easily show is that Hebrew piles up two different verbs of circling in one short clause.

Used elsewhere in the period

Here it appears as an infinitive used adverbially ('going around') to fill out the main verb. The same pairing with sāvav occurs in Ps 48:12. The hostile 'surrounding a city' sense appears in 2 Kgs 6:14.

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 19:27 תַקִּ֔פוּ you will round off

    You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

Joshua · 2

  1. Joshua 6:3 הַקֵּ֥יף you will encircle

    March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days.

  2. Joshua 6:11 הַקֵּ֖ף it encircled [it]

    So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. And the people returned to the camp and spent the night there.

    Here: A causative form that works like an adverb, 'circling, going right around.' It adds a second verb of circling to the first and stresses that the circuit was complete: the city was fully ringed.

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 7:24 מַקִּפִ֥ים [they were] surrounding

    Below the rim, ornamental buds encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

2 Kings · 2

  1. 2 Kings 6:14 וַיַּקִּ֖פוּ and they surrounded

    the king of Aram sent horses, chariots, and a great army. They went there by night and surrounded the city.

  2. 2 Kings 11:8 וְהִקַּפְתֶּ֨ם and you will surround

    You must surround the king with weapons in hand, and anyone who approaches the ranks must be put to death. You must stay close to the king wherever he goes.”

2 Chronicles · 2

  1. 2 Chronicles 4:3 מַקִּיפִ֥ים surrounding

    Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

  2. 2 Chronicles 23:7 וְהִקִּיפוּ֩ and they will surround

    The Levites must surround the king with weapons in hand, and anyone who enters the temple must be put to death. You must stay close to the king wherever he goes.”

Job · 3

  1. Job 1:5 הִקִּיפֽוּ֩ they had gone round

    And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

    Here: 'Had gone round'. The feast days had made a full circuit, each son having hosted on 'his day' (v. 4). The picture is a rotation coming back to where it started.

  2. Job 19:6 הִקִּֽיף׃ he has closed

    then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

  3. Job 19:26 נִקְּפוּ־ people have struck off

    Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.

    Here: A strong verb of cutting or knocking off, used for felling thickets (Isa 10:34). The 'they' has no named subject, which is a common Hebrew way of saying 'has been struck off'. Job pictures his skin hacked or peeled away.

Psalms · 4

  1. Psalm 17:9 יַקִּ֥יפוּ they surround

    from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me.

  2. Psalm 22:16 הִקִּיפ֑וּנִי they have encircled me

    For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

    Here: "They have closed a circle around me." It means much the same as sevavuni and repeats it, a typical Hebrew poetic parallel that tightens the trap.

  3. Psalm 48:12 וְהַקִּיפ֑וּהָ and go round it

    March around Zion, encircle her, count her towers,

  4. Psalm 88:17 הִקִּ֖יפוּ they have surrounded

    All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 10:34 וְנִקַּ֛ף and he will cut down

    He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

  2. Isaiah 15:8 הִקִּ֥יפָה it has gone around

    For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim.

  3. Isaiah 29:1 יִנְקֹֽפוּ׃ let them go around

    Woe to you, O Ariel, the city of Ariel where David camped! Year upon year let your festivals recur.

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:5 וַיַּקַּ֖ף and he has surrounded [me]

    He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

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