to close a ring around someone: to encircle a person so that they are hemmed in, or hedged in on every side
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
At bottom this verb draws a ring around a person. In 1 Samuel it is a military move: Saul and his men work along the two sides of a mountain and close in on David, tightening a circle they hope he cannot slip out of.
The same motion can be a kindness. When Psalm 5 says God surrounds the righteous with favor, the comparison is to the tall body shield a soldier stood behind: goodwill closing around a person on every side, so that nothing reaches them without meeting it first.
The tie to crowning is no accident. A crown (עֲטָרָה) is simply a ring set around the head, and Hebrew uses this one verb both for the ring that traps a man and for the ring that honors him. The other Hebrew verb for closing in around someone (כָּתַר) works the same way: it too belongs beside a word for a crown.
Nuances
1ato close in around someone in pursuit, ringing them so they cannot get away
1Sa 23:26
1bto close around someone protectively, so that what surrounds them keeps them safe
Psa 5:12(13)*
2
to crown someone: to set a crown or wreath on a person's head, or to grant them one
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
When the ring in view is the crown itself, this verb means setting that circlet on someone's head. Song of Songs pictures it plainly: a mother crowns her son on his wedding day, and the wreath she puts on him is the festive kind a bridegroom wore, not a king's regalia.
The Psalms then use the same picture for what God gives:
glory and honor are set on a human being like a wreath
faithful love and mercy are laid on a rescued life the same way
a whole year of harvest wears God's goodness as its crown
In each case the gift is not merely handed over. It is worn, plain to anyone who looks at the one who received it.
Isaiah stretches the word once further. Tyre is called the city that crowns: a trading power rich enough to hand out crowns to others, since her merchants ranked as princes and the kings she dealt with owed her their standing.
Nuances
2ato place an actual crown or wreath on someone's head
Sng 3:11
2bto crown a person or a season with something good, so that the gift rests on them as a visible honor
Psa 8:5(6)Psa 65:11(12)Psa 103:4
2cto hand out crowns to others, making other people royal
The same verb describes armed men closing in around a fugitive, so its crowning picture is a ring drawn around a person rather than a ceremony at a throne.1Sa 23:26
It can crown a stretch of time as readily as a person, so a whole season wears God's goodness like a wreath.Psa 65:11
Both
Both describe setting something on a person's head to mark honor or celebration.Sng 3:11
Only crown
In English, crowning calls up a coronation, a monarch, and a jeweled headpiece, none of which the Hebrew requires.
The Hebrew word is the crown verb, so surrounding someone and crowning them are one motion in this language.Psa 5:12
Both
Both describe a ring closing around a person so that they are enclosed on every side.1Sa 23:26
Only surround
"Surround" in English says nothing about why the ring is drawn, and it never hints at honor.
“encircle”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“close in on”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How atar differs from similar Hebrew words
כָּתַרthe other Hebrew verb for ringing someone in, used of enemies closing around a person and of the upright gathering around one who has been vindicated; it never means to crown, though it too stands beside a word for a crown.
This is the word for actually putting a crown or a wedding garland on someone's head: a mother crowns her son on his wedding day (Song of Songs 3:11), and Tyre is the city that hands out crowns to others (Isaiah 23:8).Sng 3:11Isa 23:8
God is often the one who does the encircling, and what he rings a person with is good: glory and honor (Psalm 8:5), steadfast love and mercy (Psalm 103:4), favor closed around the righteous like a shield (Psalm 5:12), even a whole year edged with his bounty (Psalm 65:11).Psa 8:5Psa 103:4Psa 5:12Psa 65:11
Both
Both picture a hostile ring drawing tight around a person until there is no way out: Israel's fighters hem the Benjaminites in (Judges 20:43) and bulls of Bashan close on the sufferer (Psalm 22:12), just as Saul and his men ring David in among the rocks (1 Samuel 23:26).Jdg 20:43Psa 22:121Sa 23:26
The ring of people can be a picture of who wins a dispute rather than a battlefield move: violent men close in on the one who is in the right until justice comes out crooked (Habakkuk 1:4), and the same picture flips when the upright gather round a man God has answered (Psalm 142:7).Hab 1:4Psa 142:7
It can soften into simply giving someone room, with no physical circle at all: Elihu asks Job to bear with him a little while he speaks (Job 36:2).Job 36:2
What closes around a person may be a good thing they have gathered for themselves: sensible people end up ringed about with knowledge (Proverbs 14:18), which some English Bibles render "crowned with knowledge" even though the word never means setting a crown on a head.Pro 14:18
סָבַבthe ordinary word for going around something, broad enough to cover marching around a city, turning aside, or circling back; this word stays with the tight ring drawn around a person.
This is the word for actually setting a crown or a wedding garland on a head: a mother crowns her son on his wedding day (Song of Songs 3:11), and Tyre is the city that hands out crowns and makes other people royal (Isaiah 23:8).Sng 3:11Isa 23:8
When God is the one who rings a person, what he puts around them rests on them as a visible honor rather than merely enclosing them: humankind is crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5), and a life is crowned with steadfast love and mercy (Psalm 103:4).Psa 8:5Psa 103:4
What it encircles need not be a person or a place at all: a whole year can be crowned with God's bounty, so that the tracks it leaves behind drip with plenty (Psalm 65:11).Psa 65:11
Both
Both picture a hostile ring drawing tight around a person until there is no way out: the men of Gibeah surround the house where the Levite is lodging (Judges 19:22) and strong bulls close in on the sufferer (Psalm 22:12), just as Saul and his men ring David in among the rocks (1 Samuel 23:26).Jdg 19:22Psa 22:121Sa 23:26
Both can turn that ring into protection, with God putting something good all the way around someone: he surrounds the one who trusts him with steadfast love (Psalm 32:10) and encloses him with songs of deliverance (Psalm 32:7), and he covers the righteous with favor as with a shield (Psalm 5:12).Psa 32:10Psa 32:7Psa 5:12
It covers plain turning, where nothing is being ringed at all: Joseph turns away from his brothers to weep (Genesis 42:24), and Ahab lies down and turns his face to the wall in a sulk (1 Kings 21:4).Gen 42:241Ki 21:4
It is the word for taking the long way round: Israel skirts Edom instead of crossing it (Numbers 21:4) and spends many days going around the hill country of Seir (Deuteronomy 2:1). The same word traces a boundary line as it bends past a landmark (Numbers 34:4).Num 21:4Deu 2:1Num 34:4
A whole crowd can use it for walking a circuit around a place, in war or in worship: Israel marches around Jericho (Joshua 6:3), the worshipper goes around the altar (Psalm 26:6), and pilgrims are told to walk all the way around Zion and count her towers (Psalm 48:12).Jos 6:3Psa 26:6Psa 48:12
It stretches to handing a thing on or turning it into something else, with no circle in view: land must not pass from one tribe to another (Numbers 36:7), Abner offers to turn all Israel over to David (2 Samuel 3:12), and Pharaoh changes Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:34).Num 36:72Sa 3:122Ki 23:34
אָפַףa poetic word for being engulfed, used of waters and of the cords of death closing over someone; it pictures being overwhelmed rather than the deliberate ringing of a person.
Means setting a crown or a festive wreath on someone's head, which is why it is regularly rendered "crowned" rather than "surrounded".Sng 3:11Psa 8:5
The ring it draws can be a kindness. God closes favor around the righteous the way a soldier's tall shield stands between him and every blow, and lays faithful love on a rescued life as something worn.Psa 5:12Psa 103:4
Used of people who deliberately work a circle shut around a man they are hunting, an encirclement someone planned and carried out.1Sa 23:26
Stretches past people altogether, to a whole year wearing God's goodness and to a trading city rich enough to hand out crowns to others.Psa 65:11Isa 23:8
Both
Both can describe a person shut in on every side by something hostile, with no way out: the ropes of the grave drawn tight around one man, pursuers closing along both sides of a mountain around another.Psa 18:41Sa 23:26
Both are rare words that English Bibles flatten into the same "surrounded" or "compassed", so a reader cannot see from the translation whether the person was engulfed by rising water or ringed about by a shield of goodwill.Psa 40:12Psa 5:12
What does the closing in is never a person. It is always a deadly force with no will of its own: the waves and ropes of death, floodwaters, or troubles piled up past counting.2Sa 22:5Psa 116:3Psa 40:12
Pictures being swallowed up from every side rather than ringed at a distance, with water rising over the head of a man who cannot get out from under it.Jon 2:52Sa 22:5
Every one of its five appearances is a person saying it happened to himself, so the word always comes from inside the danger rather than describing it from outside.Psa 18:4Psa 116:3Jon 2:5
עֲטָרָהthe crown or wreath itself, the object this verb sets on a head; that word names the thing worn, this one the act of putting it on.
atar in the other biblical languages
στεφανόωGreek“to crown”the Greek verb for crowning, tied to the victor's wreath awarded at the games and to honor won; it matches the crowning uses closely but never means to surround.
Half of this word's work has nothing to do with crowns: it is the tight ring drawn around a person. Saul's troops close in on David until he is nearly trapped (1 Samuel 23:26), and God's favor rings the righteous about like a shield (Psalm 5:12). The Greek verb never carries this sense.1Sa 23:26Psa 5:12
What gets crowned need not be a person at all: God edges a whole year with his bounty (Psalm 65:11), a use that only makes sense because the underlying picture is something running all the way around, not a wreath set on a head.Psa 65:11
It covers the ordinary ceremonial act of putting on a garland and the granting of royal rank to others: a mother crowns her son on his wedding day (Song of Songs 3:11), and Tyre is the city that hands out crowns to lesser rulers (Isaiah 23:8). The Greek verb stays with honor and victory and never becomes the word for conferring a throne.Sng 3:11Isa 23:8
Both
Where the crowning sense is in view they line up exactly, and the New Testament shows it: Psalm 8:5 says God crowned humanity with glory and honor, and Hebrews 2:7 quotes that line in Greek with this verb, rendered "crowned" in both.Psa 8:5Heb 2:7
In both languages the crowning is something done to a person by someone else, never something a person puts on themselves: God crowns the forgiven with steadfast love and mercy (Psalm 103:4), and the athlete is crowned only by the one who judges the contest (2 Timothy 2:5).Psa 103:42Ti 2:5
The crown here is a prize won in a contest, and it is withheld unless the rules were kept: an athlete goes uncrowned if he did not compete lawfully (2 Timothy 2:5). The Hebrew verb never pictures a competition or a wreath handed out at the finish.2Ti 2:5
It can mark the turn at the end of a story, where the crowning is what follows suffering: Jesus is seen crowned with glory and honor precisely because he tasted death (Hebrews 2:9). The Hebrew verb states the honor without tracing that sequence through loss to reward.Heb 2:9
The person crowned is always a person, and the crown is always honor or a victor's wreath, whether it belongs to humanity as a whole (Hebrews 2:7) or to one runner (2 Timothy 2:5). It never means to close a ring around someone, which is half of what the Hebrew verb does.Heb 2:72Ti 2:5
περικυκλόωGreek“to surround”the Greek verb for encircling, used of armies ringing a city; it matches the closing-in sense but carries none of the crowning imagery.
Means to crown in the plain sense of setting a crown on a head: the wedding crown a mother places on her son. Here the ring is a physical band of honor, an act of celebration rather than of pressure.Sng 3:11
Turns the crown into a picture of what God bestows, so that the thing encircling a person is itself the gift. God crowns human beings with glory and honor, crowns a rescued life with loyal love and mercy, and crowns the farming year with his goodness.Psa 8:5Psa 103:4Psa 65:11
Can describe a ring that shelters rather than traps: God's favor comes all the way around the righteous like a shield held in front of them. The same closed circle that means capture elsewhere here means safety.Psa 5:12
Stretches to naming a city as the one who hands out crowns: Tyre is called the crown giver, the trading power whose merchants were princes, because it conferred rank on others.Isa 23:8
Both
Both can describe a ring closed around someone so that there is no way out, drawn by hostile men who mean to take what is inside. Saul and his troops close around David to seize him, and Jerusalem's enemies close around the city; in each case the circle itself is the threat.1Sa 23:26Luk 19:43
Belongs to warfare: the ring it describes is a line of enemy soldiers thrown around a city, thrown up alongside a siege wall so that no one can get out or in. Jesus uses it of the armies that will close on Jerusalem, and the encircling there is the first stage of the city's ruin.Luk 19:43
Says nothing about honor, gift, or ornament. The word carries only the closing of a ring, and it is paired with pressure "on every side" so that the reader feels the space around the city shrinking rather than anything being placed upon it.Luk 19:43
It can describe a hostile ring closing in, men encircling a fugitive in order to seize him.1Sa 23:26
With God as the one doing it, the encircling becomes blessing: favor set around a person the way a shield stands around him, or lasting love and mercy laid on him like a wreath.Psa 5:12Psa 103:4
What gets crowned need not be a head at all: a whole year can be crowned with the goodness God pours over it.Psa 65:11
It can name a power that hands out rank to others, a city called the crown giver because her traders were treated as princes.Isa 23:8
Both
Both describe setting a crown on someone's head, the circle of it closing around him: a mother crowns her son on his wedding day, and in the Greek of the New Testament this same picture is carried by περιτίθημι when soldiers press a crown of thorns onto Jesus.Sng 3:11Mrk 15:17
Both can take honor itself as the thing placed on a person, treating respect as something laid around him: God crowns humanity with glory and honor, and Paul says we give greater honor to the parts of the body that seem less worthy of it.Psa 8:51Co 12:23
It can put a thing around a thing, with no person and no ceremony in view: a landowner plants a vineyard and runs a fence around it.Mat 21:33Mrk 12:1
It covers the plain, practical act of fixing one object onto another, such as a soaked sponge fastened to a reed or a stalk of hyssop and lifted to a dying man.Mat 27:48Mrk 15:36Jhn 19:29
It is used of dressing a person, throwing a garment around him, and it stays neutral about whether any real honor is meant: soldiers put a scarlet robe on Jesus in order to mock him.Mat 27:28
What scholars say about atar
The standard lexicons treat עטר as one root whose basic idea is encircling. BDB, HALOT and DCH agree on the same distribution: the qal means to surround or enclose (1 Sam 23:26;Ps 5:13 in the Hebrew numbering), the piel means to crown (Ps 8:6; 65:12; 103:4; Song 3:11), and the single hiphil in Isa 23:8 means to bestow a crown. STEPBible's lexical data splits the lemma into two sub-entries, "to surround" and "to crown", which tracks that stem distribution rather than two unrelated roots; the relation to the noun עֲטָרָה "crown, wreath" is generally assumed, though which of the two is derived from the other is not settled and does not affect the attested senses. The one contested point is the hiphil participle הַמַּעֲטִירָה in Isa 23:8: the lexicons and most modern commentators render it as the crown-bestowing city, with reference to the merchant-princes named in the same verse, whereas the older rendering "the crowning city" (KJV) takes the form as characterizing Tyre's own splendor. Commentators on Ps 8:6 and 103:4 note that the crowning imagery there is investiture with honor rather than accession to office, and Ps 65:12 applies the verb to the agricultural year, an extension the lexicons list under the same piel sense.