Hebrew word · H6328

פּוּק

paku

to reel

'To totter, reel, stagger, wobble'. It appears in Isaiah 28:7 (priests and prophets 'reel' in drunken vision). Related nouns are 'stumbling block' or 'cause of tottering' (1 Sam 25:31) and 'knocking/giving way of knees' (Nah 2:10/11).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to reel, totter, stumble

1a) (Qal) to reel

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to totter, wobble

1b2) to cause tottering

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 Jeremiah 10:4

Range of meaning

'To totter, reel, stagger, wobble'. It appears in Isaiah 28:7 (priests and prophets 'reel' in drunken vision). Related nouns are 'stumbling block' or 'cause of tottering' (1 Sam 25:31) and 'knocking/giving way of knees' (Nah 2:10/11).

Against the English

KJV says 'that it move not' and WEB 'so that it can't move'. These can sound as if the aim is to stop the idol walking away. YLT's 'doth not stumble' and BSB's 'not totter' keep the picture: a top-heavy figure rocking on its base.

How it drifted

'Move' is much broader and flatter than 'totter'. It loses the comic picture of a god about to fall on its face.

Used elsewhere in the period

The parallel passages Isaiah 40:20 and 41:7 use a near-synonym, mot ('totter, slip'): the craftsman sets up 'an image that will not totter'. The Philistine god Dagon, found fallen on its face before the ark (1 Sam 5:3–4), is the narrative version of the same joke.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 28:7 פָּק֖וּ they tottered

    These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.

    Here: "They tottered." Unsteady, about to fall. Jeremiah 10:4 uses the same word for an idol that has to be nailed down so it won't wobble.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 10:4 יָפִֽיק׃ it will wobble

    They adorn it with silver and gold and fasten it with hammer and nails, so that it will not totter.

    Here: 'It will (not) wobble.' This is the unsteady movement of something about to topple, like a drunk reeling (Isa 28:7). The clause ends the verse with a jab: a god that would fall over unless it were nailed down.

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