Hebrew word · H6121

עָקֹב

ako

insidious

An adjective from the root 'qb, which gives 'heel' ('aqev), 'to follow at the heel, supplant, overreach' (Gen 27:36), and the name Jacob (Ya'aqov). Elsewhere 'aqov means 'deceitful, crooked' (Jer 17:9, 'the heart is deceitful') and 'tracked, marked with footprints' (Hos 6:8, 'tracked with blood').

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) deceitful, sly, insidious

1a) deceitful, sly, insidious, slippery

1b) foot-tracked

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 40:4

Range of meaning

An adjective from the root 'qb, which gives 'heel' ('aqev), 'to follow at the heel, supplant, overreach' (Gen 27:36), and the name Jacob (Ya'aqov). Elsewhere 'aqov means 'deceitful, crooked' (Jer 17:9, 'the heart is deceitful') and 'tracked, marked with footprints' (Hos 6:8, 'tracked with blood'). Here, of terrain, lexicons give 'hilly, humped, uneven, steep ground' (the supplied data: 'steep').

Against the English

KJV "the crooked" (following the Greek skolia and Latin prava) suggests a bent or winding line, and in modern ears a crooked character. BSB/ESV/WEB "uneven ground" and NIV "rough ground" fit the landscape better.

How it drifted

The Greek translators chose skolia, 'crooked, curved', which also carried a moral sense in Greek ('a crooked generation', Deut 32:5 LXX; Acts 2:40). The Vulgate's prava ('bent, perverse') and the KJV followed. Handel's setting fixed "the crooked straight" in popular memory.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jer 17:9; Hos 6:8. LXX Isa 40:4 has ta skolia eis eutheian, 'the crooked things into a straight (way)'. Luke 3:5 keeps this wording.

From the study of Jeremiah 17:9

Range of meaning

Uneven, hilly or bumpy ground (Isa 40:4, where 'the crooked/uneven shall be made level'). Tracked or marked with footprints (Hos 6:8, of a town 'tracked with blood'). Figuratively: crooked, sly, treacherous, someone who 'heels' or overreaches another. It shares its root with ʿāqēb, 'heel', and with the name Yaʿaqob, Jacob.

Against the English

'Deceitful' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is accurate but narrower. English 'deceitful' suggests telling lies to other people. ʿāqōb is a picture of terrain that looks passable but trips you, or of someone who comes at you from behind. YLT's 'crooked' keeps the picture, and the treachery can be aimed at the heart's own owner.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah himself uses the same root as a pun on Jacob in Jer 9:4 (Heb 9:3): 'every brother is a real supplanter' (ʿāqôb yaʿqōb), echoing Esau's complaint in Gen 27:36 that Jacob 'heeled' him twice. Hosea 12:3–4 plays on the same Jacob tradition.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 40:4 הֶֽעָקֹב֙ the steep [place]

    Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.

    Here: "The humped / uneven ground". It means broken, up-and-down terrain. The word is related to the word for "heel" and to the name Jacob. Elsewhere the same adjective means "deceitful" (Jer 17:9). Here it describes landscape.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 17:9 עָקֹ֥ב [is] deceitful

    The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

    Here: Placed first for emphasis. From the root behind 'heel' and the name Jacob: something uneven, tricky, that trips you up or goes behind your back. The heart is treacherous ground.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 6:8 עֲקֻבָּ֖ה tracked

    Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.

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