Hebrew word · H6962

קוּט

unekototem

to loath

To feel loathing or disgust. It can describe God's disgust with a generation (Ps 95:10) or a person sick of their own life (Job 10:1, a related form). In Ezekiel the niphal with 'in their faces' means 'be disgusted with oneself'.

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

What it means

1) to loathe, be grieved, feel a loathing

1a) (Qal) to feel a loathing

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to feel loathing against self

1b2) to detest

1c) (Hithpolel) to loathe oneself

Also means: na.qat (נָקַט "to tire" H5354)

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 Ezekiel 6:9

Range of meaning

To feel loathing or disgust. It can describe God's disgust with a generation (Ps 95:10) or a person sick of their own life (Job 10:1, a related form). In Ezekiel the niphal with 'in their faces' means 'be disgusted with oneself'.

Against the English

'Loathe themselves' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is accurate. The YLT's 'they have been loathsome in their own faces' keeps the idiom.

How it drifted

A modern reader may hear 'self-loathing' as a psychological condition of low self-worth. The Hebrew describes moral revulsion at specific deeds, the shock of finally seeing your conduct as God sees it.

Used elsewhere in the period

Ezek 20:43 and 36:31 use the same phrase. In 36:31 it comes after God has restored and cleansed his people: they remember their ways and loathe themselves 'in their own faces' for their iniquities.

From the study of Ezekiel 20:43

Range of meaning

To feel loathing or disgust, to be sickened by something. In the reflexive form used here: to be disgusted with oneself, to find oneself loathsome. It is a strong, physical word, close to nausea.

Against the English

"Loathe yourselves" (BSB, KJV, WEB) is accurate. NLT has "hate yourselves" (it describes the same disgust in different words). YLT's "ye have been loathsome in your own faces" keeps the idiom but wrongly makes it past. Several modern versions drop "in your own sight" (literally "in your faces"), which shows that the verdict is the people's own.

How it drifted

Modern readers hear "self-loathing" as a psychological condition: low self-worth, depression, self-rejection. Ezekiel describes moral revulsion at a specific record of deeds ("for all your evils"), felt by people who have just been accepted by God. It is closer to the shame of someone forgiven than to clinical self-hatred.

Used elsewhere in the period

The reflexive use with "in your faces" appears only in Ezekiel, in three restoration settings: 6:9 (the survivors among the nations), 20:43, and 36:31 (after the gift of a new heart and spirit). Compare Job 10:1, "my soul loathes my life." The plain form is used of God's disgust with the wilderness generation (Ps 95:10) and of the psalmist's disgust with the treacherous (Ps 119:158; 139:21).

From the study of Psalm 95:10

Range of meaning

To feel loathing, disgust or revulsion; to be sick of something. BDB gives 'feel a loathing'; HALOT gives 'to feel disgust'. It is closely related to, and possibly a variant of, the verb qûṣ, 'to loathe, dread, be sick of'. Psalm 95:10 is its only use in the simple active form. Elsewhere it appears in reflexive forms: 'loathe oneself' or 'feel disgust at'.

Against the English

KJV and WEB: 'grieved'. YLT: 'weary of'. BSB and NIV: 'angry with'. ESV and NASB: 'loathed'. 'Loathed' is closest. 'Angry' catches the hostility but not the revulsion. 'Grieved' now suggests sadness, which the Hebrew does not say.

How it drifted

In 1611 'grieve' still meant to vex, burden or be offended (from Old French grever, 'to weigh down, oppress'). Since then the English word has narrowed to sorrow. The drift is in the English, not in the KJV translators' choice.

Used elsewhere in the period

Same root: Job 10:1, 'my soul loathes my life'. Ezekiel 6:9, 20:43 and 36:31: Israel will 'loathe themselves' for their evil deeds. Psalm 119:158, 'I saw the treacherous and felt disgust'. Psalm 139:21, 'do I not loathe those who rise against you?' The related qûṣ: Genesis 27:46, Rebekah 'sick of my life'. Numbers 21:5, 'we loathe this worthless bread', said of the wilderness generation about manna. Leviticus 20:23, God 'abhorred' the Canaanites. The Greek Septuagint translates it prosōchthisa, 'I was offended, disgusted', and Hebrews 3:10 and 3:17 repeat that word.

Where it appears

Psalms · 3

  1. Psalm 95:10 אָ֘ק֤וּט I loathed

    For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”

    Here: 'I loathed', a word of physical revulsion, of being sick of something. The Hebrew verb form here describes something that kept going in the past: through all forty years God kept being disgusted.

  2. Psalm 119:158 וָֽאֶתְקוֹטָ֑טָה and I felt disgust !

    I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.

  3. Psalm 139:21 אֶתְקוֹטָֽט׃ do I loathe?

    Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD, and detest those who rise against You?

    Here: A reflexive form of a verb of revulsion: "I am filled with loathing" or "I am sickened". It is a gut-level disgust (compare Ps 119:158; 95:10; Ezek 6:9). It is not sorrow or pity, whatever the older English "grieved" now suggests.

Ezekiel · 3

  1. Ezekiel 6:9 וְנָקֹ֙טּוּ֙ and they will loathe

    Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

    Here: Revulsion, the sick feeling of disgust. Ezekiel uses it only for Israel's response to its own past conduct (here, 20:43, 36:31).

  2. Ezekiel 20:43 וּנְקֹֽטֹתֶם֙ and you will loathe

    There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

    Here: "And you will feel disgust." The form turns the action back on the subject: you will be sickened at yourselves. It is a gut-level revulsion, the feeling of something rotten. Like "remember," it is future and follows the restoration.

  3. Ezekiel 36:31 וּנְקֹֽטֹתֶם֙ and you will loathe

    Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

    Here: "And you will feel loathing." This is the Niphal stem, which often expresses a state of feeling. They will be filled with revulsion. The object is not stated directly; "in your faces" points it back at themselves.

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