Hebrew word · H8623

תַּקִּיף

shehatkif

mighty

Strong, mighty, powerful. In Aramaic it is used of kings, kingdoms and God.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

mighty

Aramaic equivalent: taq.qiph (תַּקִּיף "strong" H8624)

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 Ecclesiastes 6:10

Range of meaning

Strong, mighty, powerful. In Aramaic it is used of kings, kingdoms and God.

Against the English

Translations agree on 'stronger/mightier'. The question is who is meant, and only NLT names the party outright ('God').

Used elsewhere in the period

This is its only occurrence in biblical Hebrew. Biblical Aramaic uses it in Daniel 2:40, 42 (the 'strong' kingdom), Daniel 4:3 (God's 'mighty' wonders) and Ezra 4:20 ('mighty kings'). Related Hebrew forms: the verb taqaf 'overpower' (Job 14:20; 15:24; Eccl 4:12) and the noun toqef 'authority, power' (Esth 9:29; 10:2; Dan 11:17). The Aramaic flavour fits the late Hebrew of Ecclesiastes.

Where it appears

Ecclesiastes · 1

  1. Ecclesiastes 6:10 שֶׁתַּקִּ֖יף [one] who [is] mighty

    Whatever exists was named long ago, and it is known what man is; but he cannot contend with one stronger than he.

    Here: 'One who is mighty'. The word is borrowed from Aramaic and occurs only here in biblical Hebrew. The consonants actually written (Ketiv) include the article: 'the one who is mightier'. Most readers take this Mighty One to be God.

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