to flow or pour: to run, spill, or be poured out like water, or to send something pouring or tumbling down
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At its heart this verb pictures a liquid in motion: something running, spilling, or being poured, almost always downward and often past the point of return. Water spilled on the ground cannot be scooped back up, and that irreversible loss is exactly the image 2 Samuel 14:14 uses for death.
The word stretches naturally across a range of scenes:
tears that run down a grieving face and will not stop
water racing down a steep slope, or wine tipped out of a cup
a whole hillside of stones sent tumbling into the valley below
a household's wealth draining away in a day of ruin
Its most striking use turns this picture on people. To hand a nation over to the sword is pictured as pouring them out, spilling them into slaughter the way water is emptied onto the ground. This is a stronger, more physical word than the ordinary verb for pouring, שָׁפַךְ, and it leans harder than the gentle flowing of נָזַל toward liquid that runs down, spills, or is poured out.
Nuances
1ato flow, run, or spill: of water or tears moving or draining away on their own
2Sa 14:14Job 20:28Psa 77:2(3)*Lam 3:49Mic 1:4
1bto pour out or pour down: to empty liquid from a vessel, or send something cascading down
Psa 75:8(9)Mic 1:6
1cto hand over to the sword: to deliver a people up to slaughter, pictured as pouring them out
extends to handing a whole people over to the sword, pictured as spilling them into slaughterJer 18:21
is used of water simply racing down a slope, with no one doing the pouringMic 1:4
Both
both describe liquid leaving its container and going downPsa 75:8
Only pour out
in English "pour out" suggests someone deliberately emptying a vessel, missing the sense of something that just runs, drains, or spills away on its own
“flow”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“run down”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“spill”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How nagar differs from similar Hebrew words
שָׁפַךְThe common, general verb for pouring out (of blood, water, or wrath); this word is narrower, picturing liquid that runs or trickles down and reaching into the idiom of handing a people over to the sword.
Pictures liquid running or trickling downward under its own course, not an agent emptying a vessel. Tears stream down and will not stop, hills melt and flow down a slope.Lam 3:49Mic 1:4
Carries a fixed idiom of handing people over to the power of the sword, as though pouring them out to be killed.Psa 63:10Jer 18:21Ezk 35:5
Used of wealth and goods draining away, flowing off so they are gone.Job 20:28
Both
Both describe liquid poured out onto the ground, spilled water that spreads and cannot be gathered back.2Sa 14:141Sa 7:6
The standard word for shedding blood as the crime of killing, the term for murder and bloodguilt on the land.Gen 9:6Num 35:331Ki 2:31
Names the deliberate emptying out of the inner self and of anger: pouring out one's soul or heart before God, and God pouring out his wrath.1Sa 1:15Psa 62:8Psa 79:6
The ritual term for pouring sacrificial blood out at the base of the altar.Lev 4:7Lev 4:18
נָזַלThe flowing or trickling of streams and springs, water in gentle motion; this word leans toward liquid that runs down, spills, or is poured out, and the violent picture of pouring people out to the sword.
Fresh water running along its own channel from spring, well, or river.Pro 5:15Psa 78:16Isa 48:21
Life-giving moisture coming down from above as dew and rain.Deu 32:2Job 36:28
Flowing streams as a picture of blessing and abundance.Sng 4:15Isa 44:3
nagar in the other biblical languages
ἐκχέωGreek“to pour out”The main Greek verb for pouring out, used for shedding blood and pouring out the Spirit; it overlaps this word wherever liquid or life is emptied out.
reaches beyond a person actively pouring to a liquid running or streaming down on its own, as water rushes down a slope or tears flow from the eye without stoppingMic 1:4Lam 3:49
carries the sense of being spilled out and lost past recovery, like water poured on the ground that no one can gather up again2Sa 14:14
Both
both are an ordinary verb for pouring out wine so that it spills from its containerLuk 5:37Psa 75:8
both describe blood violently shed, poured out on the earth or by the edge of the swordMat 23:35Ezk 35:5
carries the signature New Testament image of God pouring out his Spirit on people, an outpouring from heaven onto all flesh that the Hebrew word never bearsAct 2:17Act 2:33Tit 3:6Rom 5:5
describes the deliberate emptying of a vessel of divine judgment, as the angels pour out the bowls of God's wrath one after anotherRev 16:1Rev 16:3
What scholars say about nagar
BDB and HALOT treat נָגַר as a single verb meaning "to flow, pour, run," attested in the niphal ("be poured out, flow away"), hiphil ("pour out, pour down"), and hophal ("be poured down"). The lexicons single out the hiphil idiom נָגַר עַל־יְדֵי־חֶרֶב, "to hand over to the power of the sword" (Ps 63:10;Jer 18:21;Ezek 35:5), as a distinct usage in which people, not liquid, are the thing poured out. The niphal in Ps 77:2 (of the hand at night) is textually and syntactically debated, with proposals ranging from a hand stretched out in prayer that did not grow numb to a reading in terms of tears or grief poured out.