to lie on something with weight: to rest on it, press hard against it, or settle on a person as a duty
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
Under every use of this word is one picture: something resting with its full weight on something else. A stone lies across the mouth of a tomb in John 11:38, and fish lie on a charcoal fire in John 21:9. Notice what the word does not say. It never tells you who put the weight there. It reports only that the weight is on.
Once that picture is in view, the rest of the range follows without any jump:
a crowd packed so tightly around Jesus that he has to teach from a boat
a storm that keeps bearing down on a ship until everyone gives up hope
voices in a courtyard that keep pressing a demand until they get it
a duty to preach that sits on Paul and will not lift
Because this word describes the state of being under something rather than the act of putting it there, it is a useful way to name pressure whose source is left unsaid. Paul never says who laid the necessity on him in 1 Corinthians 9:16; he says only that it is there. The verb for actively setting one thing on top of another is a different word (ἐπιτίθημι), and the plain verb "to lie" that stands behind this one is κεῖμαι. For the crowding sense the nearest relative is συνέχω, which hems a thing in from every side; for the sense of duty it is ὀφείλω, which speaks of owing what is due.
Nuances
1ato lie on top of something, resting there as a covering or a load
TranslatabilityDirect
Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
1bto press hard against someone or something, as a crowd packing in or a storm bearing down
Luk 5:1Act 27:20*
1cto keep pressing a demand until it is granted
Luk 23:23
1dto rest on a person as a requirement that binds
1Co 9:16Heb 9:10
Related words
The English words used to translate epikeimai
“lay on”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“press upon”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“be urgent”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
says only that the requirement is resting there, leaving whoever laid it on unnamedHeb 9:10
Both
both describe a requirement that genuinely binds the person under it rather than a mere suggestion1Co 9:16
Only imposed
"imposed" in English suggests an authority forcing something on unwilling people, a note of resentment the Greek word does not carry on its own
How epikeimai differs from similar Greek words
ἐπιτίθημιthe active side of the same picture: someone deliberately puts a hand, an object, or a burden on top of something, while this word reports only that the weight is already resting there
Reports a thing as already sitting on top of something, with nobody named as having put it there: a stone across the mouth of a tomb, fish already resting on the coals.Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
Describes people crowding and pressing in on someone, whether by sheer bodies or by insistent shouting, where nothing physical is being placed at all.Luk 5:1Luk 23:23
Used of weather and circumstance bearing down on people, so that a violent storm is spoken of as pressing on the ship.Act 27:20
Both
Both handle the picture of a heavy demand carried by people, but from opposite ends: this word for loading the burden on (packs strapped to shoulders, a yoke set on the neck), and the other for a requirement that is simply in force already (rules imposed until the time of reform, a compulsion resting on Paul to preach).Mat 23:4Act 15:10Heb 9:101Co 9:16
Both put one thing physically on top of another, and English Bibles render both "laid on", but one marks the moment of setting it there (cloaks thrown over the animals, a found sheep hoisted onto the shoulders) and the other the state of its already being there (a stone across the tomb, fish on the fire).Mat 21:7Luk 15:5Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
Names the deliberate act of laying hands on a person, whether to heal, to bless, to commission for service, or to pass on the Spirit, always with someone doing the laying.Mrk 5:23Luk 4:40Act 6:6Act 19:61Ti 5:22
Covers setting a particular object onto a person or thing at a particular moment: a crown of thorns onto the head, the written charge above it, mud onto a blind man's eyes, brushwood onto a fire.Mat 27:29Mat 27:37Jhn 9:15Act 28:3
Stretches to violence dealt out to a victim, so that robbers and jailers are said to lay blows on someone, and a threat of harm is spoken of as laying hands on Paul.Luk 10:30Act 16:23Act 18:10
Used for giving someone a name, which is pictured as a thing placed on the person: Simon is given the name "Peter", and the sons of Zebedee are given the name "Boanerges".Mrk 3:16Mrk 3:17
Reaches the idea of adding something onto what is already there, as in the warning against anyone adding to the words of the book of Revelation.Rev 22:18
συνέχωto hold in or hem something from every side, so the pressure surrounds and confines, where this word presses from above or against
It is the ordinary word for one object simply resting on top of another, with no holding involved: a stone lying over the mouth of the tomb, and fish lying on the coals of a fire.Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
It pictures weather bearing down on people from above, so that the pressure comes from outside and overhead rather than closing in around them: the storm kept beating down on the ship until everyone gave up hope of being saved.Act 27:20
It describes rules and requirements set on people by someone with authority, laid over them like a load and meant to stay there only until a set time.Heb 9:10
It can name shouting aimed at a person in charge in order to force his hand, pressure applied from the outside to break his resistance: the crowd kept bearing down on Pilate with loud demands until their voices won.Luk 23:23
Both
Both are used of crowds packing in on Jesus so tightly that the crush itself shapes the story, and English versions render both simply "pressed" or "pressing": the people leaning in on him at the lakeside to hear him teach, and the crowds squeezing him on the road as the sick woman reaches for his clothes.Luk 5:1Luk 8:45
Both can describe a compulsion a preacher cannot shake off, so that he keeps speaking whether he wants to or not: a necessity laid on Paul to announce the good news, and Paul taken up wholly with the message once his companions arrive.1Co 9:16Act 18:5
It is the standard word for illness having a body in its grip, holding the sick person the way a captor holds a prisoner: fevers, dysentery, and every kind of disease and torment.Mat 4:24Luk 4:38Act 28:8
It describes a feeling or a coming ordeal taking hold of a person from the inside, gripping the whole self rather than weighing on it: a town seized by great fear, and Jesus gripped by what still had to be finished.Luk 8:37Luk 12:50
It is used of shutting a thing in from all sides at once, closing the space around it: siege works ringing a city so nothing can get out, and hands clamped over ears so nothing can get in.Luk 19:43Act 7:57
It names the physical hold of guards keeping a prisoner in custody, one person gripping another so he cannot get away.Luk 22:63
It can describe being caught between two pulls with no room to move either way, which is why Paul says he is squeezed between wanting to go and wanting to stay.Php 1:23
It describes a settled loyalty that keeps its hold on a person and steers what he does next, rendered "controls" or "compels" when Paul says the love of Christ has him.2Co 5:14
ὀφείλωto owe: it names a duty as a debt the person is responsible to pay, while this word pictures the same duty as a weight simply resting on them
Describes plain physical position: one thing simply resting on top of another, with no duty of any kind in view. A stone lies across the mouth of a tomb; fish lie on a charcoal fire.Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
Pictures people or events bearing down on someone: a crowd pushing in to hear, shouting voices that keep demanding a verdict, a storm that will not let up for days.Luk 5:1Luk 23:23Act 27:20
Even where it does name an obligation, the obligation is a weight lying on the person, and nobody is named as imposing it or as waiting to be paid. Paul says only that a compulsion to preach rests on him, and the food rules simply lie on the worshipers until the time of reform.1Co 9:16Heb 9:10
Both
Both can say that a requirement rests on someone and is not theirs to set aside: a rule fixed on the worshiper, a compulsion to preach, an offering a priest is bound to make, work a servant was always going to have to do.1Co 9:16Heb 9:10Luk 17:10Heb 5:3
English Bibles reach for the same small set of words for both, rendered "must", "ought", or "imposed", so the difference between a debt someone can call in and a weight simply lying on a person does not show up in the translation.Heb 9:101Co 11:7
Names money actually owed, with a sum on the books and a lender or master waiting for it: a hundred coins, five hundred against fifty, a bill Paul offers to take onto his own account.Mat 18:28Luk 7:41Luk 16:5Phm 1:18
Keeps someone on the other side of the duty, a person the duty is owed to, so it runs from one party toward another: wash one another's feet, love one another, owe nobody anything, parents saving for children rather than the reverse.Jhn 13:141Jn 4:11Rom 13:82Co 12:14
Can say that a person has put himself under a liability by swearing, so that the oath itself now binds him to hand over what he swore by.Mat 23:16Mat 23:18
epikeimai in the other biblical languages
פָּצַרHebrew“to press”the Hebrew verb for pressing a person hard with a request, as the crowd at Sodom pressed against Lot; it matches the insistent demanding sense but not the plain physical resting on something
The Greek word covers plain physical weight with nobody being pressured at all. A stone sits over the mouth of a grave, and fish sit on a charcoal fire. The Hebrew word is never used this way; it always has a person on the receiving end.Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
It also works for weather and circumstance bearing down on people. In the shipwreck account a storm is what is lying heavily on the crew, so the pressure comes from the situation rather than from anyone's voice.Act 27:20
It can describe an obligation settled on someone and left in place. Paul says a compulsion rests on him to preach, and the rules of the old sanctuary are described as laid on the worshippers until the set time. That is duty weighing on a person, not one person talking another into something.1Co 9:16Heb 9:10
Both
Both words describe someone leaning on a person and refusing to let up until that person gives way. Lot's guests turn in after he keeps at them, Elisha's men wear him down until he is embarrassed into agreeing, and in Luke the crowd keeps shouting for a crucifixion until their demand carries. Where a translator wants "pressed hard" or "kept insisting", either word will serve.Gen 19:32Ki 2:17Luk 23:23
Both can put a whole crowd up against one man. In Genesis the men of the town press in on Lot at his door, and in Luke the people press in on Jesus at the lakeside. The mood is opposite, hostile in one and eager in the other, but the picture of a mass of people closing on a single person is the same.Gen 19:9Luk 5:1
The Hebrew word specializes in pushing kindness on someone who is holding back. Lot pushes the two visitors to come indoors, Jacob keeps at Esau until he accepts the present, and a host will not let his guest leave. The Greek word never presses hospitality or a gift on anyone.Gen 19:3Gen 33:11Jdg 19:7
It also reports pressure that fails. Naaman keeps pushing his gift at Elisha and Elisha simply will not take it, so the word names the effort without promising the result.2Ki 5:16
In one place it is not an act of urging but the name of a fault. Samuel lists it beside fortune telling and household idols, where it is usually rendered "stubbornness" or "presumption": the pushiness itself is the sin.1Sa 15:23
לָחַץHebrew“to oppress”the Hebrew verb for squeezing or crushing something, and so for oppressing a people; it names the same downward force but with a real oppressor doing it, which the Greek word leaves open
The Greek word can be plain description with no pressure and no harm in view at all: a stone simply lying across the mouth of a burial cave, or fish lying on a charcoal fire by the shore.Jhn 11:38Jhn 21:9
When it does mean weight bearing down, there is often nobody at all behind that weight. A storm settles on a ship for days, an obligation to preach rests on Paul whether he likes it or not, and food and washing rules sit on worshippers until a better arrangement comes.Act 27:201Co 9:16Heb 9:10
It also covers pressure applied by sheer noise and insistence rather than by physical force: a crowd keeps shouting its demand at a judge until the shouting wins.Luk 23:23
Both
Both words start from real physical squeezing. A crowd packs in so tightly around Jesus at the lakeside that he pushes off from shore to teach, and a donkey shoves against a wall until Balaam's foot is crushed against the stone.Num 22:25Luk 5:1
Both then describe a pressure people cannot get out from under, so that either can be rendered "pressing hard" on someone: a storm that will not let up for days, or an enemy who keeps grinding a nation down year after year.Jdg 4:3Psa 56:1Act 27:20
The Hebrew word nearly always has a named oppressor doing it, and a people on the receiving end: Egypt, a Canaanite king, the king of Aram, all bearing down on Israel.Exo 3:9Jdg 4:32Ki 13:22
It carries a moral charge the Greek word does not. Israel is commanded never to do this to a foreigner living among them, God is said to rescue his people from those who do it, and he promises to deal with everyone who does.Exo 22:21Exo 23:9Jdg 6:9Jer 30:20
It can mean crowding a people off their own ground: one tribe is squeezed back into the hills and kept out of the valley, and a whole country is hemmed in from one end of it to the other.Jdg 1:34Amo 6:14
What scholars say about epikeimai
BDAG divides ἐπίκειμαι into four uses: lying upon (John 11:38; 21:9), pressing or crowding upon (Luke 5:1, with the storm of Acts 27:20), insisting urgently (Luke 23:23), and being incumbent or imposed (1 Corinthians 9:16;Hebrews 9:10). LSJ documents the same spread across classical and Hellenistic Greek, including the idiomatic use of storms and threats that press or impend, which is why Acts 27:20 is sometimes rendered as the tempest continuing over the ship rather than bearing down on it. The difficulty at Hebrews 9:10 is one of construction rather than lexical sense: Attridge sets out the problem of deciding what the nominative plural participle ἐπικείμενα modifies within 9:9-10 and how the clause about foods, drinks, and washings attaches to it. Fee reads the ἀνάγκη ... ἐπίκειται of 1 Corinthians 9:16 as an objective constraint laid on Paul by his commission rather than an inward psychological compulsion.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἐπίκειμαιlexicon
LSJ, s.v. ἐπίκειμαιlexicon
Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Hermeneia), on Hebrews 9:9-10commentary
Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), on 1 Corinthians 9:16commentary