Hebrew word · H6129
עֲקַלָּתוֹן
akalaton
crooked
Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. From ʿql, 'to bend, twist', which in Hab 1:4 and Judg 5:6 (ʿăqalqallôt, 'winding paths') is used of crooked things. Meaning: twisting, coiling, writhing.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament.
What it means
crooked
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
- Range of meaning
Occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. From ʿql, 'to bend, twist', which in Hab 1:4 and Judg 5:6 (ʿăqalqallôt, 'winding paths') is used of crooked things. Meaning: twisting, coiling, writhing.
- Against the English
KJV 'crooked'; ESV 'twisting'; NIV/BSB 'coiling'; WEB 'twisted'. 'Coiling' or 'twisting' fits the physical picture best. 'Crooked' can make modern readers think of moral dishonesty, which is not the main point.
- How it drifted
Because 'crooked' in modern English mostly means 'dishonest', the KJV wording now invites a moral or spiritual reading ('a twisting, deceiving spirit') that the word, describing a serpent's body, does not carry.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ugaritic bṯn ʿqltn, 'the twisting serpent', appears in both KTU 1.3 III 41 and 1.5 I 2. It is one of the clearest word-for-word borrowings between Ugaritic and biblical poetry (Day; HALOT).
Where it appears
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 27:1 עֲקַלָּת֑וֹן twisting
In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent—Leviathan the coiling serpent—and He will slay the dragon of the sea.
Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. It comes from the root 'to bend, be crooked' and describes the serpent's writhing, coiled body. The exact same word appears in the Ugaritic myth (btn ʿqltn).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.