something poured out: wine poured as an offering to a god, or metal poured into a mold to make an image.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Both uses grow from one picture, a liquid poured out. In the Song of Moses, God mocks the gods Israel has chased after by asking where they are now, the gods who drank the wine poured out to them. In Daniel the same spelling names the images of a nation's gods, which were made by pouring molten metal into a mold.
This is not the usual word for a drink offering. Israel's sacrificial laws use a related form (נֶסֶךְ) dozens of times for the wine poured out beside a sacrifice. The form here is rare and belongs to poetry, so where it appears the writer is making a point rather than describing routine worship.
The Daniel verse is the harder one, and English Bibles split over it. Older versions read "their princes", taking the word in its completely separate sense of a ruler. Most modern versions read metal images, because the verse goes straight on to list precious vessels of silver and gold that a conquering king carries off, which puts the word in a list of valuable objects rather than of people.
Nuances
1awine poured out as an offering to a god.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
Deu 32:38
1ban image formed by pouring molten metal into a mold.
Dan 11:8*
2
a chief installed in office: one of a group of rulers over a people, named alongside a greater king or as the leadership of a nation.
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
This is a poet's word for rulers. It is almost always plural and almost always tied to whoever they belong to: the chiefs of Sihon, the chiefs of the north, their chiefs. It pictures leadership as a set of men holding office over a people, not as one monarch standing alone, and it carries a hint of being installed or set in place rather than simply being born to rank.
Joshua 13:21 shows the flavor plainly. The five Midianite men killed along with King Sihon are called the leaders (נָשִׂיא) of Midian in the first half of the verse and the chiefs of Sihon in the second. The same men are Midian's own heads and Sihon's subordinates at once, which is why many translations render the word here as "vassals" or "allies".
Almost every use names foreign rulers, and usually rulers about to fall: Zebah and Zalmunna and the enemy leadership in the psalm, the chiefs of the north going down to the pit in Ezekiel. Micah is the exception, promising seven shepherds and eight chiefs raised up from among ordinary people to meet the Assyrian threat, which is the one place the word describes leaders on God's side.
the rare poetic form, not the ordinary term Israel's sacrificial laws useDeu 32:38
Both
both name wine poured out for a god to drinkDeu 32:38
Only drink offering
"drink offering" sounds like a fixed item on a worship checklist, while here it is wine poured out to gods the poem is ridiculing
“molten image”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“vassal”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“chief”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How nesikh differs from similar Hebrew words
נָשִׂיאthe common word for a tribal head or community leader, used far more often and freely of Israel's own leaders; Joshua 13:21 applies both words to the same five men.
This is a rare word that lives in poetry and prophecy. It turns up in a psalm praying for the rout of Israel's enemies and in a promise of leaders raised up against Assyria, never in the record books that list officials by name.Psa 83:11Mic 5:5
It comes as a group title, the chiefs of a region or a people taken together, and never stands as one man's own title.Ezk 32:30Mic 5:5
The same spelling carries a second, unrelated meaning: wine poured out to a god, and metal poured into a mold. That is why translations part ways at Daniel 11:8, some reading "their princes" and others "their metal images".Deu 32:38Dan 11:8
Both
Both title a chief who heads a people rather than a king who reigns over a kingdom, and the two can name the very same men: Joshua 13:21 calls Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba the leaders of Midian and, in the same breath, the chiefs of Sihon.Jos 13:21
Both are used of the rulers of foreign nations in prophetic laments, standing side by side in one poem over the nations laid in the grave: Edom with her leaders, and the chiefs of the north with all the Sidonians.Ezk 32:29Ezk 32:30
This is the everyday title for the head of a tribe or clan in Israel, and it fills the official records: the men picked by name for the census, the ones who brought the offerings for the altar, the group who came to Moses about the double portion of bread.Num 1:16Num 7:2Exo 16:22
It can be one man's title, and even a compliment paid to his face: the Hittites greet Abraham with it, and it marks the man who ruled the land around Shechem.Gen 23:6Gen 34:2
Israel's law treats it as a standing position with rules attached: cursing such a man is forbidden, and there is a set offering for the case where he sins without meaning to.Exo 22:28Lev 4:22
Ezekiel keeps this title, rather than "king", for the ruler of the restored nation when he pictures David set over the people again.Ezk 34:24Ezk 37:25Ezk 44:3
This spelling also serves a completely different word for the mist or clouds that lift from the earth, in pictures of God sending rain.Psa 135:7Jer 10:13
נָדִיבa noble or generous-hearted person, stressing standing and willingness rather than an office held over a people; it stands in parallel with this word in Psalm 83:11.
The same spelling also names something poured out, which has nothing to do with rank: the wine poured to the gods Israel chased after, and, on the reading most modern versions take in Daniel, metal poured into a mold to make an image.Deu 32:38Dan 11:8
Ties a chief to whoever he belongs to, with a hint of holding office under someone stronger. The five Midianite leaders killed along with King Sihon are called the chiefs of Sihon, which is why many translations reach for "vassals" there, and Ezekiel lines up the chiefs of the north as the leadership of whole nations.Jos 13:21Ezk 32:30
Always comes as a set of chiefs and never as one man on his own or as a general class of well-born people: the chiefs of Sihon, the chiefs of the north, the eight chiefs raised up with seven shepherds to meet the Assyrian.Jos 13:21Ezk 32:30Mic 5:5
Both
Both name people holding high rank over a nation, and they are close enough that one prayer sets them side by side, asking God to make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna. In that verse each word names enemy leadership the psalmist asks God to bring down.Psa 83:11
Names willingness itself and not an office at all. The materials for the tabernacle come only from people whose hearts move them, David tells Solomon that willing workers will be on hand for the temple, and Psalm 51 asks God to restore a willing spirit. The other word never describes an inner readiness of any kind.Exo 35:5Exo 35:221Ch 28:21Psa 51:12
Carries a moral demand alongside the rank, so the wisdom writings and Isaiah measure a noble by whether he is actually open-handed and honorable. Isaiah promises a day when the fool will no longer be called "generous", and says that the noble plans generous things and stands by them.Pro 17:7Pro 19:6Isa 32:5Isa 32:8
Sits easily inside Israel's own life. Hannah sings that God lifts the poor from the ash heap to seat them with nobles, the psalm repeats it, and the wilderness song credits the nobles of the people with digging the well.1Sa 2:8Psa 113:8Num 21:18
Becomes a standing warning about where to place your confidence: better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in nobles, and do not trust in nobles, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. The other word is never used to caution a reader this way.Psa 118:9Psa 146:3
שַׂרthe everyday word for an appointed official or army commander, at home in administrative prose where this rarer word belongs to poetry.
It never names one man with a post of his own. It arrives as a group of chiefs belonging to a people or to a stronger king: the chiefs of Midian killed alongside Sihon, the chiefs of the north, all of an enemy's chiefs together.Jos 13:21Ezk 32:30Psa 83:11
It belongs to poetry and prophecy rather than to records of who ran what, and it usually names foreign leadership at the moment it is being brought down, laid in the pit or made like Zebah and Zalmunna.Ezk 32:30Psa 83:11
In its one hopeful use the chiefs are raised up to meet an invasion rather than appointed to a standing office: seven shepherds and eight chiefs set against the Assyrian.Mic 5:5
The same spelling also covers a second, unrelated word for something poured out: the wine poured to the gods Israel chased after, and in one disputed verse the molten images of a nation's gods. Looking this word up turns up offerings mixed in with rulers.Deu 32:38Dan 11:8
Both
Both name leaders who hold power under someone greater rather than kings in their own right: the chiefs who answered to Sihon, and Sisera who commanded Jabin's army.Jos 13:21Jdg 4:2
Both can name a nation's leading men as a body, and English Bibles render both as "princes": the princes of Pharaoh who praise Sarai to him, and all the princes of Israel's enemies in the psalm.Gen 12:15Psa 83:11
It normally states the exact thing a person is over, and the phrase says so out loud: the chief of the cupbearers and the chief of the bakers, the captain of the guard, commanders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.Gen 40:2Gen 37:36Exo 18:21
It is the everyday word of government and record keeping, used freely of Israel's own officials and of appointments made on the spot: Moses setting men over the people, the taskmasters set over Israel's forced labor, Pharaoh telling Joseph to put his brothers over the royal herds.Deu 1:15Exo 1:11Gen 47:6
It attaches to one named man holding the post: Phicol, who commanded Abimelech's army, and Sisera, who commanded Jabin's.Gen 21:22Jdg 4:2
It reaches past human government into the unseen, naming the commander of the LORD's army who confronts Joshua outside Jericho.Jos 5:14Jos 5:15
נֶסֶךְthe ordinary word for a drink offering poured out in Israel's worship, common throughout the sacrificial laws where this rarer form never appears.
This word can name people. Its usual sense is a set of chiefs holding office over a people, often under a stronger king, which the other word never means.Jos 13:21Ezk 32:30Mic 5:5
It is rare and at home in poetry and prophecy, so it never appears in the worship instructions that fix how much wine to pour with each sacrifice.Deu 32:38Psa 83:11
Because one spelling covers both a poured offering and a ruler, a single verse is genuinely uncertain: Daniel 11:8 is read as either "their princes" or "their metal images", and English Bibles divide.Dan 11:8
Both
Both come from the same picture of pouring, and both can name wine poured out for a god to drink.Deu 32:38Gen 35:14
Both are used of wine poured out to gods other than the LORD, and in each case the writer is condemning the practice rather than describing proper worship.Deu 32:38Jer 7:18
Both stretch from poured wine to poured metal, so each is rendered "molten image" somewhere, naming an idol cast in a mold.Dan 11:8Isa 48:5
This is the settled term of Israel's worship. The law names it again and again, fixing the measure of wine to pour beside each sacrifice, morning and evening, through the whole festival calendar.Exo 29:40Num 15:5Num 28:7
One term covers both altars. The same word names the wine poured to the LORD at the sanctuary and the wine poured on rooftops to other gods, which is how the prophets expose the illicit rite as a counterfeit of the real one.Lev 23:13Jer 7:18Jer 44:17
Its metal sense is a settled reading, not a contested one: in the prophets' mockery of idol makers it stands beside the carved image as the thing a workman pours and then calls a god.Isa 41:29Isa 48:5Jer 10:14
Because it is the daily rite, its absence measures disaster. Joel signals the collapse of worship by reporting that the grain offering and the poured wine have been cut off from God's house.Jol 1:9Jol 1:13
מַסֵּכָהthe standard word for an image cast from molten metal, which is what the Daniel verse is usually taken to be describing.
Only this word names the drink itself that is poured out to a god, in the taunt asking where those gods are now, the ones who drank the wine poured for them.Deu 32:38
Most of its uses name people rather than objects: chiefs installed over a people, nearly always foreign and nearly always on their way down, such as the five men killed alongside King Sihon or the chiefs of the north going down to the pit.Jos 13:21Psa 83:11Ezk 32:30
It can also name leaders on God's side, the shepherds and chiefs raised up from among ordinary people to meet the Assyrian threat, a use no metal object could carry.Mic 5:5
Both
Both can name an image made by pouring molten metal into a mold, the finished lump that a nation then calls its god.Exo 32:4Hab 2:18Dan 11:8
Both turn up where the gods of the nations are shown to be helpless, whether the offering set before them goes unanswered or their images are hauled away as plunder.Isa 42:17Deu 32:38
This is the Bible's fixed term for the forbidden metal idol, the word attached to the golden calf and then repeated for centuries as a standing charge against Israel in law, story, psalm and prayer.Exo 32:4Deu 9:12Psa 106:19Neh 9:18
It covers thin metal laid over a wooden core, not only a solid casting, so it can name the gold sheathing of an image that gets stripped off and thrown away like something filthy.Isa 30:22
The pouring can turn figurative for sealing a bargain, and most read the charge against Judah as pouring out an agreement with Egypt that God was never asked about.Isa 30:1
The same spelling also carries a completely separate sense that has nothing to do with metal, a woven covering spread over something: the shroud lying over all the nations, and a bed cover too narrow to wrap up in.Isa 25:7Isa 28:20
nesikh in the other biblical languages
ἄρχωνGreek“ruler”the New Testament word for a ruler or official, used of anyone holding authority rather than of a chief named under a greater king.
Never names one leader standing alone. It comes as a set of chiefs tied to whoever they belong to, with a hint of holding office under a greater power: the men who are Midian's own leaders in one breath and Sihon's chiefs in the next, the chiefs of the north, the eight chiefs raised up alongside seven shepherds.Jos 13:21Ezk 32:30Mic 5:5
The same spelling carries a second and unrelated sense, something poured out: the wine poured to the gods Israel chased after, and, on the reading most modern versions take, metal poured into a mold to make an image. The Greek word has nothing of this.Deu 32:38Dan 11:8
Belongs to poetry and prophecy rather than to plain reporting of who held office, so it surfaces in a prayer against enemy nations and in a lament over chiefs going down to the pit.Psa 83:11Ezk 32:30
Both
Both name people set in authority over others, and both sit easily in the plural for a whole leadership taken together: the chiefs of the north, the rulers gathered with the elders in Jerusalem.Ezk 32:30Act 4:5
Both can name authority that is set against God and will not last. The psalm asks that the enemy chiefs be made like Zebah and Zalmunna, the church prays over rulers who gathered against the Lord and his Anointed, and Paul writes of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.Psa 83:11Act 4:261Co 2:6
Reaches past human office to spiritual power, naming the chief of the demons and the ruler of this world whose grip Jesus says is being broken. The Hebrew word never leaves the human level.Mat 9:34Jhn 12:31Jhn 14:30Eph 2:2
Names one man on his own, holding a particular local post: the synagogue head who begs Jesus to come to his daughter, the Pharisee who visits at night, the wealthy man who asks how to inherit eternal life.Mat 9:18Luk 8:41Jhn 3:1Luk 18:18
Covers the everyday official an ordinary person has to deal with: the magistrate you settle with before reaching court, the city authorities Paul and Silas are dragged in front of, the governing power a believer is told to respect.Luk 12:58Act 16:19Rom 13:3
Can be lifted to the highest place of all and given to the risen Christ as ruler of the kings of the earth. The Hebrew word always names a chief who stands under someone greater.Rev 1:5
σπένδωGreek“to pour a libation”the Greek verb for pouring out a drink offering, which Paul turns on his own life; it names the act of pouring rather than what is poured.
It names the thing poured, not the pouring: the wine set before other gods in Deuteronomy 32:38, and in Daniel 11:8 an object shaped by pouring molten metal into a mold.Deu 32:38Dan 11:8
Most of its occurrences leave offerings behind entirely and name a person, a chief installed in office under a greater king: the five leaders of Midian in Joshua 13:21, the enemy rulers in Psalm 83:11, the fallen chiefs mourned in Ezekiel 32:30, and the leaders raised up against an invader in Micah 5:5.Jos 13:21Psa 83:11Ezk 32:30Mic 5:5
Both
Both belong to the drink offering, the wine poured out to a god alongside a sacrifice. Deuteronomy 32:38 taunts the gods who drank the wine of such offerings, and Philippians 2:17 pictures Paul himself as the wine poured over the sacrifice that the faith of his readers makes.Deu 32:38Php 2:17
It names the act of pouring rather than anything you could point to on the altar. In Philippians 2:17 the picture is wine going out over an offering, and in 2 Timothy 4:6 the pouring has already begun, so the word always describes something happening.Php 2:172Ti 4:6
In both New Testament uses what gets poured out is a person, not a liquid: Paul speaks of his own life being spent, given for others in Philippians 2:17 and running out as his death draws near in 2 Timothy 4:6.Php 2:172Ti 4:6
What scholars say about nesikh
The standard lexica treat נָסִיךְ as two homonyms rather than one polysemous noun. HALOT, BDB and DCH each give a separate entry for the noun "prince, chief" and for the noun denoting what is poured out ("libation", and for some also "cast image"). The ruler noun is normally connected with נסך in its sense "to install, anoint", as in Psalm 2:6, where God declares he has installed his king on Zion; the libation noun belongs with נסך "to pour out". Since both derivations trace back to pouring, the two are occasionally described as one ancient word that developed in two directions, but the lexicographical tradition is uniform in separating them, and the semantic gap between a poured offering and a human ruler is wide enough that a shared core cannot be stated without vacuity. Distributionally the ruler noun is confined to poetry and elevated prose, occurs only in the plural construct, and outside Micah 5:5 always denotes foreign rulers; Joshua 13:21, where the same five Midianites are נְשִׂיאֵי מִדְיָן and נְסִיכֵי סִיחוֹן in one verse, is the key text for the vassal nuance. The one genuinely contested occurrence is Daniel 11:8, where the defectively written נְסִכֵיהֶם is read either as "their molten images" (so most modern versions and commentators, given the immediately following כְּלֵי חֶמְדָּתָם כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב) or as "their princes" (the King James tradition).
Sources
HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. נָסִיךְlexicon
BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. נָסִיךְlexicon
DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. נָסִיךְlexicon
John J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (1993)commentary
Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Micah, Anchor Bible 24E (2000)commentary