Hebrew word · H7064
קֵן
kan-
nest
A bird's nest; by extension a dwelling or place of security, sometimes a lofty, supposedly safe refuge (Num 24:21; Jer 49:16; Obad 4; Hab 2:9). It can also mean the brood in the nest (Deut 32:11; Isa 10:14).
Appears 13 times in 13 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) nest
1a) nest (of bird)
1b) cells (like nests in Noah's ark)
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 Proverbs 27:8
- Range of meaning
A bird's nest; by extension a dwelling or place of security, sometimes a lofty, supposedly safe refuge (Num 24:21; Jer 49:16; Obad 4; Hab 2:9). It can also mean the brood in the nest (Deut 32:11; Isa 10:14).
- Against the English
'Nest' is accurate. English 'nest' also carries 'home' and 'family' overtones ('empty nest'), and so does the Hebrew.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Job 29:18 has 'I shall die in my nest,' meaning a settled, secure life at home among one's own. Isa 16:2 has the 'scattered nest' of refugees.
- Range of meaning
A bird's nest. By extension it means a dwelling or home, especially one chosen for safety. The Bible uses it as a figure for a stronghold that is out of reach.
- Against the English
'Nest' is accurate. What English loses is that 'setting one's nest on high/in the rock' was a recognisable stock phrase for false security.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Numbers 24:21, Balaam to the Kenites: 'Enduring is your dwelling, and set (sim) in the rock (sela') is your nest (qinnekha).' It uses the same verb form and the same noun with the same suffix, alongside the word sela' that Obadiah 3 uses. The Kenites are then told they will still be carried off. Habakkuk 2:9: 'woe to him… to set his nest on high, to be delivered from the reach of harm.' Jeremiah 49:16 and 22:23 use the same image.
From the study of Genesis 6:14
- Range of meaning
A bird's nest (Deuteronomy 22:6; Psalm 84:3). By extension it can mean a home or dwelling (Numbers 24:21; Job 29:18), and here a cell or compartment.
- Against the English
'Rooms' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV) makes the reader think of rooms in a house. NASB's 'compartments' is closer to the structure. None of them keeps the picture of nests.
- How it drifted
Translators naturally replace the image with what it refers to. Nothing is wrong with that, but the picture is lost.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The Septuagint keeps the image: nossias, 'nests', from the word for a nestling. The Vulgate has mansiunculas, 'little dwellings'. Some modern scholars repoint the same consonants as qānîm, 'reeds', reading 'make the ark of reeds'. This conjecture has no support in any manuscript, though it would match Mesopotamian reed boats and the reed-hut motif of the Atrahasis story.
Where it appears
Genesis · 1
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Genesis 6:14 קִנִּ֖ים nests
Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Here: Literally 'nests', meaning cells or compartments. The picture is of a box made up of many small nest-like spaces for the creatures inside. It comes first in its clause for emphasis.
Numbers · 1
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Numbers 24:21 קִנֶּֽךָ׃ nest your
Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff.
Deuteronomy · 2
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Deuteronomy 22:6 קַן־ a nest of
If you come across a bird’s nest with chicks or eggs, either in a tree or on the ground along the road, and the mother is sitting on the chicks or eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.
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Deuteronomy 32:11 קִנּ֔וֹ nest its
As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
Here: 'Its nest'. Hebrew poetry places the nesher's nest on high, unreachable cliffs (Job 39:27–28; Jer 49:16). Here the word stands for the whole household of chicks.
Job · 2
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 84:3 קֵ֥ן a nest
Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she places her young near Your altars, O LORD of Hosts, my King and my God.
Proverbs · 1
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Proverbs 27:8 קִנָּ֑הּ nest its
Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who wanders from his home.
Here: "Her nest": the bird's own nest, where it shelters and raises its young. In Hebrew poetry 'nest' can also stand for a person's dwelling and security (Num 24:21; Obad 4; Hab 2:9), so the picture already leans toward the human half of the verse.
Isaiah · 2
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Isaiah 10:14 כַקֵּ֤ן׀ like <the> nest
My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’”
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Isaiah 16:2 קֵ֣ן a nest
Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon:
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 49:16 קִנֶּ֔ךָ nest your
The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
Here: 'Your nest': Edom's home and refuge pictured as an eyrie, a cliff nest. Nests in the prophets often stand for a secure dwelling that is about to be robbed (Isa 10:14; Hab 2:9).
Obadiah · 1
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Obadiah 1:4 קִנֶּ֑ךָ nest your
Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
Here: 'Your nest': Edom's home and stronghold, and the security it relied on. Elsewhere in the Bible a nest set high or in rock stands for a place that harm cannot reach.
Habakkuk · 1
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Habakkuk 2:9 קִנּ֔וֹ nest his
Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!
Here: 'His nest': the eagle's nest on a cliff, a stock prophetic picture of a proud power that thinks it cannot be reached (Obad 4; Jer 49:16). A nest also holds a brood, so it fits the idea of a house as a family line. It recalls the Chaldeans flying 'like an eagle' in Habakkuk 1:8.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.