Hebrew word · H6124

עָקֹד

'akod

striped

Striped or banded, possibly with rings of colour around the legs. Only in Gen 30:35, 39, 40; 31:8, 10, 12. It is usually connected to the root ʿ-q-d, 'to bind'. The picture would be markings that look like bands tied around the animal.

Appears 7 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

streaked, striped

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 Genesis 30:35

Range of meaning

Striped or banded, possibly with rings of colour around the legs. Only in Gen 30:35, 39, 40; 31:8, 10, 12. It is usually connected to the root ʿ-q-d, 'to bind'. The picture would be markings that look like bands tied around the animal.

Against the English

KJV 'ringstraked' (ring-streaked) reflects the 'bands/rings' idea; BSB and WEB 'streaked'. All are reasonable guesses at a rare word.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same root gives the verb 'bound' in Gen 22:9, where Abraham binds Isaac. That is a shared root only; there is no sign the narrator meant to point to that story here.

Where it appears

Genesis · 7

  1. Genesis 30:35 הָֽעֲקֻדִּ֣ים <the> striped

    That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.

    Here: Animals with bands or stripes of colour, perhaps rings around the legs (hence KJV 'ringstraked', i.e. ring-streaked). This marking was not named in Jacob's proposal (v.32); Laban's list is even broader than what Jacob asked for.

  2. Genesis 30:39 עֲקֻדִּ֥ים striped [ones]

    they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

  3. Genesis 30:40 עָקֹ֛ד [the] striped

    Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

  4. Genesis 31:8 עֲקֻדִּים֙ עֲקֻדִּֽים׃ striped [ones]

    If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore speckled offspring. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then the whole flock bore streaked offspring.

  5. Genesis 31:10 עֲקֻדִּ֥ים [were] striped

    When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females.

  6. Genesis 31:12 עֲקֻדִּ֥ים [are] striped

    ‘Look up,’ he said, ‘and see that all the males that are mating with the flock are streaked, spotted, or speckled; for I have seen all that Laban has done to you.

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