StrongerBible

negeph

נֶגֶף

HebrewH5063“plague, stumbling”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 12:13Exo 30:12Num 8:19Num 16:46(17:11)Num 16:47(17:12)Jos 22:17Isa 8:14
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeNEH-gefnoun

What negeph means

a striking blow: the impact that brings something down, whether a deadly stroke against a people or a foot hitting a stone

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This word is the noun of a verb that means to hit something hard enough to damage it (נָגַף). It names the blow itself, the instant of impact, and not the disease that a blow might amount to or the thing that delivers it. Hebrew has a fuller word for the resulting disaster (מַגֵּפָה), measured by the dead it leaves behind; this one stays with the moment of the strike. That is why one short word can cover both the death of Egypt's firstborn in a single night and a rock that catches a walker's foot.

Six of its seven appearances name a deadly stroke falling on a people, and most of them share a striking feature: the blow is spoken of as something that can be held off.

  • The blood on the doorposts keeps it away from Israel's houses on Passover night.
  • A ransom paid at the census keeps it from breaking out when the people are counted.
  • The Levites serving at the tent of meeting keep it away from the rest of Israel.
  • Aaron running into the crowd with incense stops it once it has already started.

When it does land, after Korah's rebellion and after the sin at Peor, the text says only that it had begun, and someone has to get between it and the people.

The seventh appearance turns the picture inside out. Isaiah says God will be a place of safety and, at the very same time, a stone that the two houses of Israel strike their feet against, set next to a rock they trip over (מִכְשׁוֹל). The image stays deliberately physical, a foot meeting a rock in the road, and it works because of that: the same God is shelter to one person and the thing that brings down another, depending on how they come to him. The New Testament reaches back to this line for its own picture of a stone people stumble over.

Nuances

1athe deadly blow God strikes against a people: a plague or death-stroke that breaks out and kills
TranslatabilityApproximate
Exo 12:13Exo 30:12Num 8:19Num 16:46(17:11)Num 16:47(17:12)Jos 22:17
1bthe striking of a foot against something in the path, which brings the walker down
Isa 8:14
Isa 8:14

How much of the weight in Isaiah 8:14's "stone of striking" falls on the concrete image of a struck foot and how much on divine judgment.

  • majorityThe phrase retains its concrete kinetic force, a literal road-hazard rock, and functions as a figure precisely because it does: Yahweh himself becomes what Israel walks into, sanctuary to some and downfall to others.; H. Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12: A Commentary, trans. T.H. Trapp (Continental Commentary, Fortress, 1991), on 8:14; H.G.M. Williamson, Isaiah 6-12 (ICC, T&T Clark, 2018), on 8:14; J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 2000), on 8:14
  • minorityThe weight falls on downfall and judgment rather than on the physical act of tripping, so the phrase is best read as a judgment formula.; J.J.M. Roberts, First Isaiah (Hermeneia, Fortress, 2015), on 8:14

What scholars say about negeph

The noun נֶגֶף occurs 7 times and is lemmatized by every major lexicon under the single root נגף, alongside the far more frequent מַגֵּפָה (26 times) and the verb (roughly 49 times). BDB (619b to 620a) numbers two senses for the noun, "a blow, striking" (Isaiah 8:14) and "striking down, plague"; HALOT glosses it as "blow, plague" (Exodus 12:13; 30:12; Numbers 8:19; 17:11 and 17:12 in Hebrew numbering, which are Numbers 16:46 and 16:47 in English Bibles; Joshua 22:17) or "obstacle" (Isaiah 8:14, אֶבֶן נֶגֶף). No modern lexicon posits homonyms, and Blau's surveys of disputed Hebrew homonyms do not list the root; the semantic bridge from "strike" to "stumble" is transparent, since a foot stumbles precisely by striking something. Preuss (TDOT 9:210 to 213) gives the fullest theological treatment, arguing that the kernel of the root is kinetic collision and that the priestly writers of Exodus 30 and Numbers 17 secondarily narrowed נֶגֶף into a technical term for a ritually avertable stroke, in contrast to מַגֵּפָה, which clusters in narratives of collective disaster. DCH (vol. 5) maps the collocations without ruling on the sense division. The Septuagint distributed the root across at least six Greek verb families, rendering the plague noun with πληγή (Exodus 12:13; Joshua 22:17) and θραῦσις (Numbers 17) and the foot-striking uses of the verb with προσκόπτω; the received Old Greek of Isaiah 8:14 anomalously negates the stumbling, but a Hebrew-based recension reflected in Aquila and Symmachus restored λίθος προσκόμματος, the form cited at Romans 9:33 and 1 Peter 2:8, which made Isaiah's אֶבֶן נֶגֶף the source of the New Testament stumbling-stone motif. On Isaiah 8:14 itself, Wildberger, Blenkinsopp, Williamson, and Roberts all reject a forced choice between physical tripping and divine judgment, differing only in emphasis. Comparative evidence is thin: the root is attested in Middle Hebrew, Jewish and Samaritan Aramaic, Syriac, and Ge'ez, but is absent from Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Punic, and the proposed link with Akkadian nakapu "to gore" founders on the consonantal correspondence.

Where scholars disagree about negeph

Whether this noun is at heart a technical term for a divine plague or the general word for a struck blow that the priestly writers specialized.

  • majorityThe kernel of the root is plain kinetic collision, and the priestly writers of Exodus 30 and Numbers 17 secondarily narrowed the noun into a technical term for a stroke that ritual atonement can avert; the standard lexica accordingly preserve both the plague sense and the obstacle sense as equally legitimate.; H.D. Preuss, TDOT 9 (Eerdmans, 1998), 210-213; F. Brown, S.R. Driver, C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Clarendon, 1906), 619b-620a, s.v. נגף; L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J.J. Stamm, HALOT, trans. M.E.J. Richardson (Brill, 1994-2000), s.v. נגף
  • minorityThe noun is essentially a theological technical term for the personal, judicial stroke of the covenant God, a reading anchored in the priestly plague-and-atonement complex of Exodus 12 and 30 and Numbers 8 and 17.; N. Sarna, Exodus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1991), on Exodus 12:13 and 30:12; U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, trans. I. Abrahams (Magnes, 1967), on Exodus 12:13; J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990), on the priestly plague-atonement complex; W.H.C. Propp, Exodus 19-40 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 2006), on Exodus 30:12
  • minorityThe lexeme is a mundane term for physical or military striking throughout, and the plague usage is simply that ordinary sense applied to a divine agent rather than a specialized cultic vocabulary item.; C. Houtman, Exodus, vol. 3 (HCOT, Kok, 2000), on Exodus 21:35; M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 1991), on Deuteronomy 1:42 and 28:7, 25; J. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary, 1996), on Deuteronomy 28
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

  • F. Brown, S.R. Driver, C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Clarendon, 1906), 619b-620a, s.v. נגףlexicon
  • L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, J.J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M.E.J. Richardson (Brill, 1994-2000), s.v. נגףlexicon
  • D.J.A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 5 (Sheffield Phoenix, 2001), s.v. נגףlexicon
  • H.D. Preuss, "נָגַף nagap; נֶגֶף negep; מַגֵּפָה maggepa," Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 9 (Eerdmans, 1998), 210-213theological-dictionary
  • W.A. VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Zondervan, 1997), s.v. נגףtheological-dictionary
  • R.L. Harris, G.L. Archer, B.K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Moody, 1980), entry 1294theological-dictionary
  • N. Sarna, Exodus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1991), on Exodus 12:13 and 30:12commentary
  • U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, trans. I. Abrahams (Magnes, 1967), on Exodus 12:13commentary
  • B. Childs, The Book of Exodus (OTL, Westminster, 1974), on Exodus 12:13commentary
  • W.H.C. Propp, Exodus 19-40 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 2006), on Exodus 30:12commentary
  • J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990), on Numbers 8:19 and 17:11-12commentary
  • T. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1993), on Numbers 17commentary
  • H. Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12: A Commentary, trans. T.H. Trapp (Continental Commentary, Fortress, 1991), on 8:14commentary
  • J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible, Doubleday, 2000), on 8:14commentary
  • H.G.M. Williamson, Isaiah 6-12 (ICC, T&T Clark, 2018), on 8:14commentary
  • J.J.M. Roberts, First Isaiah (Hermeneia, Fortress, 2015), on 8:14commentary
  • T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters, 2009), s.vv. πληγή, προσκόπτωlexicon
  • J. Blau, "Uber homonyme und angeblich homonyme Wurzeln," Vetus Testamentum 6 (1956): 242-248article
  • J.R. Wagner, Heralds of the Good News: Isaiah and Paul in Concert in the Letter to the Romans (Brill, 2002)monograph

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

All attested forms of נֶגֶף

m s absolute

נֶגֶף, נֶּגֶף, נָּגֶף

Exo 12:13, Exo 30:12, Num 8:19, Isa 8:14, Num 16:47, Jos 22:17, Num 16:46