to block something from taking effect: to overrule a vow, turn people back from a course they were set on, or bring a plan to nothing
This verb is always about someone stepping in and stopping something before it can take hold. It is rare, appearing only eight times, and it never describes a thing failing on its own: somebody with the standing to do it does the blocking. The three settings it turns up in look different on the surface but do the same work:
- a father or a husband hears a woman's vow and refuses to let it stand
- men back from scouting the land drain the nerve of a whole nation so it will not cross over
- God stops the schemes of the nations from getting anywhere
In each case something was already in motion, a promise, a march, a plan, and someone keeps it from arriving. That is why one Hebrew word can cover situations English keeps apart.
The law of vows in Numbers 30 sets this word beside another one, פָּרַר, which means to break something already binding. The pairing is careful rather than repetitive: the husband both blocks his wife and breaks the vow she made. Psalm 33:10 puts the same verb to work on a plan rather than a promise, God bringing the schemes of the peoples to nothing. The noun built on this root, תְּנוּאָה, names the opposition itself.
One line, Psalm 141:5, has never been sorted out. The Hebrew there is difficult and the ancient Greek translation clearly worked from a different text, so every English rendering of that half verse is a considered guess.
Nuances
What the verb means in Psalm 141:5, where the Hebrew line is difficult and the ancient versions read it differently.
- contestedThe Hebrew text should be kept, and the verb means to refuse: the speaker asks that his head not turn away the oil of a righteous man's rebuke.; HALOT, s.v. נוא; BDB, s.v. נוא
- contestedThe line is textually damaged, the Greek Old Testament reflects a different Hebrew wording, and no rendering of the verb here can be established with confidence.; Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 60-150 (Continental Commentary); Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (Word Biblical Commentary 21)