Aramaic word · H5994

עֲמִיק

'amikata'

deep

Deep. Used as a noun ('deep things'), it means matters beyond human reach or measurement. Hebrew ʿamoq is used of deep water, deep pits, and plans or wisdom that cannot be fathomed (Ps 64:6; Prov 20:5; Eccl 7:24 'deep, very deep, who can find it out?').

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears once in the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

adj

1) deep

subst

2) deep things, deep mysteries

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 Daniel 2:22

Range of meaning

Deep. Used as a noun ('deep things'), it means matters beyond human reach or measurement. Hebrew ʿamoq is used of deep water, deep pits, and plans or wisdom that cannot be fathomed (Ps 64:6; Prov 20:5; Eccl 7:24 'deep, very deep, who can find it out?').

Against the English

'Deep' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV) is right. NASB's 'profound' leans toward intellectual difficulty and loses the picture of physical depth, of something lying too far down to reach.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 12:22 ʿamuqot ('deep things'); Ecclesiastes 7:24; Job 11:7–8, where God's mysteries are 'deeper than Sheol'. A possible later echo is 1 Cor 2:10, 'the deep things (ta bathē) of God', though no direct dependence can be shown.

Where it appears

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 2:22 עַמִּיקָתָ֖א <the> deep [things]

    He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.

    Here: 'The deep things', an adjective used as a noun. These are things too far down for anyone to reach or measure, here above all the king's dream, which no one else could get at.

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