בּוּקָה

From the study of Nahum 2:10

Range of meaning

The first two words come from the root b-w-q / b-q-q, 'to empty out, to lay bare, to pour out.' A related verb is used of emptying a land or a vessel (Isaiah 24:1, 3; Jeremiah 51:2; Nahum 2:2 [Eng.], 'plunderers have plundered them,' literally 'emptiers have emptied them'). The third word comes from b-l-q, 'to devastate, to lay waste,' attested only here and in Isaiah 24:1. Together they describe a place stripped of contents and people, gutted.

Against the English

No English rendering can keep both the meaning and the sound. KJV 'empty, and void, and waste' and YLT 'empty, yea, emptiness and waste' keep the threefold structure. BSB/NASB turn it into full sentences ('She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste!'), which is clear but loses the breathless, verbless exclamation. NIV ('pillaged, plundered, stripped') imitates the alliteration with p-sounds. ESV ('Desolate! Desolation and ruin!') keeps the exclamation and the echo between the first two words.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 24:1 pairs the same two roots: 'the LORD is emptying (bôqēq) the earth and laying it waste (ûbôleqāh).' This suggests b-q-q and b-l-q were a known sound pair for total devastation. Nahum 2:2 (Eng.) already used b-q-q of Assyria having 'emptied' Israel, so here the emptier is emptied. Hebrew has similar rhyming pairs for utter ruin, such as šô'āh ûmᵉšô'āh ('waste and desolation,' Job 30:3; 38:27; Zephaniah 1:15) and tōhû wāvōhû ('formless and void,' Genesis 1:2).