Hebrew word · H5365
נָקַר
nikar
to dig
To bore, dig, or pick out. It is used for gouging out eyes (Judges 16:21, Samson; 1 Samuel 11:2, Nahash's threat) and for a quarry "dug out" (Isaiah 51:1).
Appears 6 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) to bore, pick, dig, pick out
1a) (Qal) to bore, pick, dig
1b) (Piel) to bore out
1c) (Pual) to be dug out
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 Proverbs 30:17
- Range of meaning
To bore, dig, or pick out. It is used for gouging out eyes (Judges 16:21, Samson; 1 Samuel 11:2, Nahash's threat) and for a quarry "dug out" (Isaiah 51:1).
- Against the English
"Pick out" and "pluck out" soften the verb a little. It is a boring, gouging action, exactly how a carrion bird's beak works on an eye.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Its use for the deliberate mutilation of eyes in Judges and 1 Samuel shows how vivid the word would have sounded.
From the study of Judges 16:21
- Range of meaning
To bore, dig out, pick or peck out. In the intensive form used here it means to gouge out eyes. Elsewhere it is used of rock 'hewn' or dug out (Isa 51:1) and of birds pecking at a carcass (Prov 30:17).
- Against the English
KJV and WEB 'put out his eyes' sounds almost mild, and could be taken as simply 'blinded'. BSB 'gouged out' and YLT 'pick out' keep the physical violence of the Hebrew.
- How it drifted
'Put out' (as in putting out a light) is older idiomatic English for blinding and softens the picture for modern ears.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The same verb and object appear in Num 16:14 ('will you gouge out the eyes of these men?') and in 1 Sam 11:2, where Nahash the Ammonite demands to gouge out the right eye of every man of Jabesh. The Babylonians blinded King Zedekiah (2 Kgs 25:7, with a different verb). Assyrian and Babylonian records and reliefs show captives being blinded. Akkadian texts discussed by K. van der Toorn mention blinded prisoners of war being put to work, including at grinding.
Where it appears
Numbers · 1
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Numbers 16:14 תְּנַקֵּ֖ר will you put out
Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”
Judges · 1
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Judges 16:21 וַֽיְנַקְּר֖וּ and they gouged out
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze shackles and forced to grind grain in the prison.
Here: 'And they bored out.' The verb form is an intensive one, and it means digging or pecking something out. Ravens 'pick out' an eye in Proverbs 30:17. It is violent and permanent, not a gentle 'putting out'.
1 Samuel · 1
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1 Samuel 11:2 בִּנְק֥וֹר by gouging out
But Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”
Job · 1
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Job 30:17 נִקַּ֣ר he has pierced
Night pierces my bones, and my gnawing pains never rest.
Proverbs · 1
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Proverbs 30:17 יִקְּר֥וּהָ they will pluck out it
As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.
Here: "They will bore it out." The verb means to dig or bore, and is used for gouging out eyes (Judges 16:21; 1 Samuel 11:2). The "it" refers back to the eye. The verb form can state what will happen or express a wish ("may they...").
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 51:1 נֻקַּרְתֶּֽם׃ [which] you were dug out
“Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
Here: "You were dug out." The verb is used elsewhere for gouging out eyes. Here it is a vivid word for prising stone out of a rock face. It is passive again: someone dug them out, and this form occurs only here.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.