Hebrew word · H5363

נֹ֫קֶף

kenokef

shaking

A rare noun found only in Isaiah 17:6 and here. Most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it to a root naqaf meaning "strike off, knock down" (compare Isaiah 10:34, where the forest thickets are "cut down", and Job 19:26, where skin is "struck off").

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

What it means

striking 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 Isaiah 24:13

Range of meaning

A rare noun found only in Isaiah 17:6 and here. Most lexicons (BDB, HALOT) connect it to a root naqaf meaning "strike off, knock down" (compare Isaiah 10:34, where the forest thickets are "cut down", and Job 19:26, where skin is "struck off"). It names the act of beating olives off the branches with poles. A second, unrelated root naqaf means "go around, encircle" (Leviticus 19:27; 2 Kings 6:14). A few older translators linked the noun to that root instead.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and NASB say "shaking". Several modern versions say "beaten", which is closer to the actual method. BSB's "harvested olive tree" is accurate in general but loses the picture of sticks thrashing the branches. YLT's "compassing" comes from the "go around" root, perhaps meaning going around the tree for the last fruit. Few scholars follow it now.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 24:20 describes the practice with a different verb (chavat, "beat"): "When you beat your olive tree, do not go over the branches again; what is left is for the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow." Isaiah 17:6 fills in the picture: "two or three berries in the top of the highest bough, four or five on the branches of a fruit tree". Olive harvesting by beating with long rods is shown in ancient Mediterranean art and is still practised in the region today.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 17:6 כְּנֹ֣קֶף like [the] beating of

    Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel.

  2. Isaiah 24:13 כְּנֹ֣קֶף like [the] beating of

    So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest.

    Here: "Like the beating" of an olive tree. Workers knocked olives down with sticks, and a few always stayed at the top. The word appears only here and in Isaiah 17:6, so the picture is of almost total stripping.

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