Hebrew word · H5910

עַכּוֹ

ako

Acco

Acco, a port city at the north end of the Bay of Haifa/Acre.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Accho = "his straitness"

a seaport town in Asher north of Mount Carmel and south or Tyre

Also named: Ptolemais (Πτολεμαΐς "Ptolemais" G4424)

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 Judges 1:31

Range of meaning

Acco, a port city at the north end of the Bay of Haifa/Acre.

Against the English

No drift. This is the only time the city is named in the Hebrew Bible.

Used elsewhere in the period

Attested very early: Egyptian Execration Texts (19th–18th century BC), Thutmose III's town lists, the Amarna letters ('Akka'), and Sennacherib's annals. In the Hellenistic period it was renamed Ptolemais, under which name Paul stopped there (Acts 21:7). It may also have stood in Asher's list in Joshua 19:30, if 'Ummah' there is a copying error for 'Acco', as many scholars think.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 1:31 עַכּ֔וֹ Acco

    Asher failed to drive out the inhabitants of Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Achzib, Helbah, Aphik, and Rehob.

    Here: The main natural harbor on the bay north of Mount Carmel, later called Ptolemais and today Akko/Acre. This is its only mention in the Hebrew Bible.

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