StrongerBible

ketem

כֶּתֶם

HebrewH3800“gold, fine gold, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Job 28:16Job 28:19Job 31:24Psa 45:9(10)Pro 25:12Sng 5:11Isa 13:12Lam 4:1Dan 10:5
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeKEH-temnoun

What ketem means

fine gold: the poets' word for gold of the highest grade, prized for its purity and worth.

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Ketem is the poets' word for gold of the very best grade. Ordinary Hebrew has a common, everyday word for gold (זָהָב), and that is the word used all through the law, the building of the Temple, and the record books. Ketem never appears in those places. It is kept for poetry and elevated speech, where a rarer, richer-sounding word suits the tone.

Wherever it does appear, it means the finest gold. It is called "pure" and "good," set beside another poetic word for refined gold (פָּז), and tied to Ophir, the far-off land that was a byword for the best gold money could buy. So the word does not name a special shape of the metal or a way of working it; it names top quality.

Because it stands for the peak of worth, the poets use it as a measuring stick:

  • wisdom cannot be bought with it, however much you weigh out (Job 28)
  • the wealthy are warned not to make it their confidence (Job 31:24)
  • a survivor is called rarer than it, to picture a land stripped bare (Isaiah 13:12)
  • its going dim opens a lament over a ruined and disgraced city (Lamentations 4:1)

It can also simply adorn: a royal bride stands in gold of Ophir (Psalm 45:9), a lover's head is likened to finest gold (Song of Songs 5:11), and a wise word of correction is compared to an ornament of fine gold (Proverbs 25:12).

Job 28:16Job 28:19Job 31:24Psa 45:9(10)Pro 25:12Sng 5:11Isa 13:12Lam 4:1Dan 10:5

What scholars say about ketem

כֶּתֶם occurs nine times, all in poetry or elevated prophetic and visionary discourse (Job 28:16; 28:19; 31:24; Prov 25:12; Song 5:11; Isa 13:12; Lam 4:1; Dan 10:5; Ps 45:10 [Eng. 45:9]), and never in the Pentateuch or the Temple-building and cultic inventories, where זָהָב dominates. It denotes fine, high-grade gold marked by prestige and quality: it is qualified as טָהוֹר "pure" (Job 28:19) and טוֹב "good" (Lam 4:1), set parallel to פָּז "refined gold" (Song 5:11; Isa 13:12), and collocated with אוֹפִיר, the byword for the finest gold (Isa 13:12; Job 28:16; Ps 45:10; and, if אוּפָז is a variant of אוֹפִיר, Dan 10:5). The etymology is genuinely unsettled: the much-cited derivation from Akkadian kutimmu "goldsmith" (itself from Sumerian KU.DIM) faces the semantic objection that kutimmu is the craftsman, not the metal, so BDB labels the word only a possible loan; Egyptian and common-Semitic origins are also proposed, and Mankowski's stricter loanword criteria would treat it skeptically. Standard lexicography (BDB, HALOT, DCH) also recognizes a separate homonymous verb כתם "to be stained/defiled," attested only as נִכְתָּם in Jer 2:22, which the LXX (κεκηλίδωσαι) and Vulgate (maculata es) both read as "stain," confirming the two-root analysis. The reddish or rose-gold association derives from Rabbinic usage (ketem as a menstrual bloodstain, Mishnah Niddah 8:1; Jastrow) and is not demonstrable for the biblical texts.

Where scholars disagree about ketem

Whether the noun meaning "gold" and the verb "to be stained" in Jeremiah 2:22 are two unrelated words that merely share the same three consonants, or one word from a single root.

  • majorityTwo separate, unrelated words. The standard lexicons list them as distinct entries, and the ancient translations rendered the one as "gold" and the other as "stain," showing the two were never confused.; BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. כֶּתֶם and כָּתַם; Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (1987), s.v. כתם
  • minorityOne word from a single root meaning "to write" or "to mark," so that fine gold is "marked" or assayed metal and a stain is a conspicuous mark.; Menahem Zvi Kaddari, A Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (2006), s.v. כתם
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 (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. כֶּתֶםlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. כתםlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, Dictionary of Classical Hebrew), s.v. כתםlexicon
  • Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (1987), s.v. כתםdictionary
  • Paul V. Mankowski, Akkadian Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew, Harvard Semitic Studies 47 (2000)monograph
  • Chaim Tawil, An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew (2009)dictionary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 21-37, Word Biblical Commentary (2006)commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs, Anchor Bible (1977)commentary

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

All attested forms of כֶּתֶם

m s construct

כֶּתֶם

Job 28:16, Psa 45:9, Sng 5:11, Isa 13:12, Dan 10:5

m s absolute

כֶּתֶם, כָתֶם

Job 28:19, Job 31:24, Lam 4:1, Pro 25:12