StrongerBible

yaqa

יָקַע

HebrewH3363“dislocated, alienated, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 32:25(26)Num 25:42Sa 21:62Sa 21:92Sa 21:13Jer 6:8Ezk 23:17Ezk 23:18
Word studyResearch-gradeyaw-KAHverb

What yaqa means

1

to be wrenched out of place: a joint torn from its socket, or the inner self torn away from someone in revulsion

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The plainest use of this verb is physical. When Jacob wrestles through the night at the Jabbok, his opponent touches his hip and it is wrenched out of its socket, leaving him with a limp. That is the concrete picture the word begins from: something forced out of the place where it belongs.

The prophets take that same physical verb and apply it to a person's inner life. The self is pictured as wrenched away from something it was once bound to, turning from it in disgust. This shows up in two settings that mirror each other:

  • a person recoiling from a former lover in revulsion
  • the LORD recoiling from an unfaithful Jerusalem

Ezekiel even pairs the word with a near-twin verb (נָקַע) for the very same recoil, so the two run side by side in one passage.

Holding the literal and the figurative together is the point. Whether it is a hip bone or a person's affection, the word pictures a violent tearing loose, not a gentle drifting away. English struggles to keep both in view, which is why translators reach for very different words in Genesis than in Jeremiah or Ezekiel.

Nuances

1aa joint wrenched out of its socket; physically dislocated
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
Gen 32:25(26)
1bthe inner self wrenched away from someone, turning from them in revulsion or estrangement
TranslatabilityPartial
Jer 6:8Ezk 23:17Ezk 23:18
2

to impale or expose a body in a solemn public execution carried out before the LORD

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

In a handful of texts the causative form of this verb names a grim public act: the bodies of condemned men are fastened up and left exposed in the open. It happens to the ringleaders of Israel's worship of Baal at Peor, and to seven of Saul's descendants handed over to the Gibeonites. In both cases the execution is done "before the LORD," language that marks it as a sacred act meant to turn away divine anger and to clear the land of blood-guilt.

What the act physically involved is not spelled out, and this is where scholarship divides sharply. The exact method could be impaling on a stake, exposing bodies already put to death, or wrenching them apart. The closest ordinary word for stringing a body up is a different verb (תָּלָה); this word is rarer and more technical, tied to these two solemn scenes.

Whether this execution sense grows out of the physical wrenching of the first meaning or stands on its own as specialized legal vocabulary is an old and unsettled question, taken up in the notes below.

Num 25:42Sa 21:62Sa 21:92Sa 21:13

Disputed

What the public execution actually was. The wording marks it as a sacral act carried out before the LORD and in the open, but the concrete method is never stated, and the ancient versions and modern scholars diverge widely, offering impalement, corpse-exposure, dismemberment, and crucifixion-like suspension.

  • majorityImpalement on a stake: a public sacral execution of ringleaders whose corpses are displayed as expiation. This is the dominant modern rendering, adopted by most recent translations.; Jacob Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990), 213-214; Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 21-36 (Anchor Bible 4A, 2000), 283-288; Simeon Chavel, essay on 2 Samuel 21:1-14, Journal of Biblical Literature 122 (2003): 23-52
  • minorityPost-mortem exposure of bodies already put to death, an aggravation of the death penalty rather than the means of it; Moses's follow-up command to slay the men is read as evidence the exposure comes after execution.; Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT, 1993), 517-520; A. A. Anderson, 2 Samuel (Word Biblical Commentary 11, 1989), 246-252; George Buchanan Gray, Numbers (ICC, 1903), 380-383
  • minorityDismemberment, a literal bodily wrenching apart that reads the execution as a direct causative of Genesis's dislocation sense.; Henri Cazelles, David's Monarchy and the Gibeonite Claim, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 87 (1955): 165-175; P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel (Anchor Bible 9, 1984), 439-446

What scholars say about yaqa

All the major modern lexica (BDB 429; HALOT; DCH 4; Gesenius 18; NIDOTTE #3697) list יקע as a single lemma, glossing the Qal be dislocated, torn away, alienated and the Hiphil expose, impale, hang up (with the Hophal participle at 2 Samuel 21:13 be exposed/impaled). A common but mistaken claim that BDB splits the verb into two homonyms confuses its adjacent entry for the phonologically related נקע. The base etymology is Arabic waqaʿa (fall down, throw down), with Geʿez waqʿa and Jewish Aramaic/Mishnaic יקע/נקע (be dislocated) as further reflexes; HALOT's proposed Akkadian waqāʿu (impale) is contested and absent from CAD. The fullest philological study of the Hiphil is Robert Polzin, HTR 62 (1969): 227-240, who unifies the root and reads the Hiphil as a technical term for the solemn covenantal execution of oath-breakers, done before YHWH as covenant guarantor at both Baal-Peor (Numbers 25) and the Gibeonite reckoning (2 Samuel 21). Genuine disagreement runs along four lines. First, how tightly the Hiphil binds to the Qal: unifiers (Speiser, Genesis AB, 253-256; Polzin) derive the causative from the physical wrench, while Ben-Yehuda (Millon 4:2133) posited two unrelated stems and Haran treats the Hiphil as functionally independent ritual-legal vocabulary. Second, the concrete referent of the Hiphil: impalement (Milgrom; Levine; Chavel, JBL 122 [2003]: 23-52), post-mortem exposure (Ashley; Anderson; Gray), dismemberment (Cazelles, PEQ 1955; McCarter, II Samuel AB), crucifixion-like suspension (Targum, Vulgate, Josephus; traced in the reception history by Halperin, JJS 32 [1981]: 32-46), or the now-abandoned hurl-from-a-rock of W. Robertson Smith. Third, the theology: a broad sacrificial-expiatory consensus (the phrase before the LORD read as a propitiatory marker, blood-guilt and land pollution the framework) against Westbrook's strictly judicial-talionic reading (Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Law, 1988, 47-55). Fourth, the register of the Qal in the prophets: physical wrench (Holladay, Jeremiah 1, Hermeneia, 211-213), visceral revulsion (Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1, Hermeneia, 481-491; Greenberg, Ezekiel 21-37, AB, 476-491; Block, Ezekiel 1-24, NICOT, 738-756; Lundbom, Jeremiah 1-20, AB, 419-422), or relational estrangement (older versions). Commentators are near-unanimous that the marital-emotive idiom of Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the execution Hiphil are functionally distinct in the biblical writers' usage even if they share one root, a caution consonant with James Barr's warnings about the root fallacy.

Where scholars disagree about yaqa

Whether the verb is one root whose stems specialized around a single image of forcible displacement, or whether the public-execution use is essentially independent vocabulary sharing the same three consonants. Every major modern lexicon lists the word as one root, and unifying scholars derive the causative execution sense from the physical wrench and tear-away of Genesis. Others treat the execution sense as separate technical legal vocabulary, or in the strongest form as a second unrelated stem.

  • majorityOne root: the execution sense is a causative extension of the physical wrench and tear-away, so the whole word turns on a single image of forcible displacement.; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 429, s.v. יקע; Koehler, Baumgartner, Stamm, HALOT, s.v. יקע; E. A. Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible 1, 1964), 253-256; Robert Polzin, HWQY and Covenantal Institutions in Early Israel, Harvard Theological Review 62 (1969): 227-240
  • minorityThe execution sense is substantially or entirely independent, either technical legal vocabulary functioning on its own or, in the strongest form, a second unrelated stem.; Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Millon ha-Lashon ha-Ivrit, 4:2133; Menahem Haran, The Impaling of the Sons of Saul by the Gibeonites, in Studies in the Book of Samuel, ed. B. Z. Luriah, 1:249-279
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 429, s.v. יקעlexicon
  • Koehler, Baumgartner, Stamm, HALOT, s.v. יקעlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 4, s.v. יקעlexicon
  • Gesenius 18 (Meyer, Donner, Rüterswörden), Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch, 2:488, s.v. יקעlexicon
  • Willem A. VanGemeren, ed., NIDOTTE, no. 3697theological-dictionary
  • Robert Polzin, HWQY and Covenantal Institutions in Early Israel, Harvard Theological Review 62 (1969): 227-240article
  • E. A. Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible 1, 1964), 253-256commentary
  • Henri Cazelles, David's Monarchy and the Gibeonite Claim, Palestine Exploration Quarterly 87 (1955): 165-175article
  • P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel (Anchor Bible 9, 1984), 439-446commentary
  • Simeon Chavel, essay on 2 Samuel 21:1-14, Journal of Biblical Literature 122 (2003): 23-52article
  • Jacob Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990), 213-214commentary
  • Baruch A. Levine, Numbers 21-36 (Anchor Bible 4A, 2000), 283-288commentary
  • Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1 (Hermeneia, 1979), 481-491commentary
  • Moshe Greenberg, Ezekiel 21-37 (Anchor Bible 22A, 1997), 476-491commentary
  • Daniel I. Block, The Book of Ezekiel: Chapters 1-24 (NICOT, 1997), 738-756commentary
  • William L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia, 1986), 211-213commentary
  • Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 1-20 (Anchor Bible 21A, 1999), 419-422commentary
  • Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT, 1993), 517-520commentary
  • A. A. Anderson, 2 Samuel (Word Biblical Commentary 11, 1989), 246-252commentary
  • George Buchanan Gray, Numbers (ICC, 1903), 380-383commentary
  • Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Millon ha-Lashon ha-Ivrit, 4:2133lexicon
  • Raymond Westbrook, Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Law (Cahiers de la Revue Biblique 26, 1988), 47-55monograph
  • David Halperin, Crucifixion, the Nahum Pesher, and the Rabbinic Penalty of Strangulation, Journal of Jewish Studies 32 (1981): 32-46article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of יָקַע

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fs

וַתֵּקַע

Gen 32:25, Ezk 23:17, Ezk 23:18

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיֹּקִיעֻ

2Sa 21:9

hiphil consecutive-perfect 1cp

וְהוֹקַעֲנוּ

2Sa 21:6

hiphil imperative 2ms

וְהוֹקַע

Num 25:4

hophal passive-participle m p absolute

הַמּוּקָעִים

2Sa 21:13

qal imperfect 3fs

תֵּקַע

Jer 6:8