StrongerBible

anag

עָנֹג

HebrewH6026“delight, pampered, ...”

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 28:56Job 22:26Job 27:10Psa 37:4Psa 37:11Isa 55:2Isa 57:4Isa 58:14Isa 66:11Jer 6:2
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-NAHGverb

What anag means

1

to luxuriate in something: to take rich, unhurried pleasure in it, the way a person of leisure enjoys comfort

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The pleasure this word names is not ordinary gladness. It belongs to the language of soft living: rich food, warm care, a life cushioned from hardship. When the Hebrew Bible wants a word for the enjoyment of someone who has never had to go without, this is the word it reaches for.

That is what makes it startling wherever God is the one enjoyed. "Delight yourself in the LORD" (Psalm 37:4) is not asking for polite religious satisfaction. It borrows the vocabulary of luxury and points it at God, as though he were the rich table a person settles down to. Isaiah does this on purpose. The same word he strips from Babylon he hands back to Zion in chapters 55, 58, and 66, and at Isaiah 58:13 its noun (עֹנֶג) becomes the name given to the Sabbath itself.

That same verse tells this pleasure apart from a plainer one (חָפֵץ), the ordinary word for what a person wants or is set on. Doing your own pleasure on the Sabbath is the thing forbidden; calling the Sabbath a delight is the thing commanded. Two kinds of enjoyment, separated in a single sentence.

The senses gathered here are one motion seen from three angles:

  • delighting in God himself, the settled hope of the psalms and the wisdom books
  • luxuriating in something rich and plentiful, whether good food, tender care, or a long peace
  • turning that same enjoyment against another person, which is how Isaiah 57:4 appears to use it

Nuances

1ato take deep pleasure in God himself
Job 22:26Job 27:10Psa 37:4Isa 58:14
1bto luxuriate in something rich and plentiful
Psa 37:11Isa 55:2Isa 66:11
1cto take pleasure at the expense of another person: to make sport of someone
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Isa 57:4
Isa 57:4

Whether the Hithpael in Isaiah 57:4 is a distinct pejorative sub-sense (make merry over, make sport of) or the ordinary sense take exquisite delight in, deployed ironically with a human object.

  • minorityA distinct pejorative sub-sense: to make merry over or make sport of someone.; BDB, s.v. ענג
  • majorityThe ordinary sense take exquisite delight in, used ironically with a human object as prophetic rhetorical inversion.; HALOT, s.v. ענג; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 6 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007), s.v. ענג; Tryggve Kronholm, ענג, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 212-219
2

to be pampered: to live so softly and richly cared for that hardship is unthinkable

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the same pleasure seen from the receiving end. Here the word does not describe a person enjoying something. It describes a person who has been kept in comfort so completely that the comfort has shaped them.

Deuteronomy 28:56 pictures a woman so delicately raised that she has never tried setting her bare foot on the ground, and the horror of the curse is that even she will be driven to the unthinkable. Deuteronomy pairs the word with the ordinary term for something soft to the touch, so the physical picture stays in view. Jeremiah 6:2 applies it to Jerusalem herself, a whole city imagined as a coddled daughter.

Careful readers of these passages notice how restrained the tone actually is. The word says what the person is, privileged and refined, rather than passing sentence on them. Where these texts do condemn, the charge is cruelty or arrogance exercised from a comfortable position, not the comfort itself. The matching adjective (עָנֹג) describes Babylon the same way in Isaiah 47:1.

Deu 28:56Jer 6:2

Disputed

Whether the pampered side of this root (the infinitive in Deuteronomy 28:56, the Pual participle in Jeremiah 6:2, and the cognate adjective in Deuteronomy 28:54 and Isaiah 47:1) carries moral censure or simply denotes socio-economic privilege and refinement.

  • majorityIt denotes socio-economic privilege and refinement rather than moral fault; the condemnation in these contexts attaches to mercilessness and hubris exercised from that station, not to the refinement itself.; Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996), ad Deut 28:54-56; Richard D. Nelson, Deuteronomy: A Commentary, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 331-334; John Goldingay, What Happens to Ms Babylon in Isaiah 47, Why, and Who Says So?, Tyndale Bulletin 47.2 (1996): 223-224; Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55, AB 19A (New York: Doubleday, 2002), ad Isa 47:1
  • minorityIt retains a sensual, voluptuous nuance of self-indulgence, best rendered voluptuous rather than merely delicate.; Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40-66, Eerdmans Critical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), ad Isa 47:1

What scholars say about anag

The standard reference works agree on the family of glosses (delicate, dainty, soft, tender, pampered, refined, luxurious, delight, pleasure) but divide over which pole is primary. BDB, older Gesenius, and TWOT posit a linear derivation from physical softness to luxury to affective delight, and BDB accordingly splits the Hithpael into three sub-senses: be of dainty habit (Deuteronomy 28:56), take exquisite delight (Psalm 37; Isaiah 55, 58, 66; Job 22:26; 27:10), and make sport of (Isaiah 57:4). HALOT, the 18th edition of Gesenius, Kronholm in TDOT, and NIDOTTE prefer a parallel model in which the Pual be pampered and the Hithpael take exquisite delight are co-original expressions of one affective concept of tender indulgence. The comparative evidence supports the parallel model: the only secure extra-Hebrew cognate is Arabic ghanija (be coquettish, playfully affectionate, pampered), with the regular correspondence of Arabic ghayn to Hebrew ayin; Akkadian, Ugaritic, Geez, and Syriac have no cognate, and the Aramaic usage is a Hebrew borrowing through liturgical channels (Sokoloff). Clines brackets etymology and catalogues usage only. On the theology, Kronholm and NIDOTTE track a negative pole in prophetic critique of luxury (Isaiah 13:22; 47:1; Micah 1:16; Jeremiah 6:2) and a positive pole in the piety of delight in YHWH (Psalm 37:4, 11; Job 22:26; Isaiah 58:14). Childs, Goldingay, and Paul read Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah as deliberately reappropriating vocabulary stripped from Babylon in Isaiah 47 and handing it to Zion in Isaiah 55, 58, and 66; Isaiah 58:13-14 is the pivot, where Sabbath is renamed a delight and the worshipper in turn delights in YHWH. Blenkinsopp, Childs, Goldingay, and Oswalt all recognize the theological weight of that pericope while disagreeing over its compositional stratum (Westermann and Blenkinsopp assign it to a later layer; Childs and Goldingay treat it as canonically integral). The Septuagint renders the family with the tryphe word-group at both poles, and b. Shabbat 118a-b grounds the later institution of oneg shabbat in Isaiah 58:13, drawing it together with Psalm 37:4.

Where scholars disagree about anag

Whether the physical sense (soft, delicate, pampered) is the primary kernel from which the affective sense (take exquisite delight) developed, or whether the two are co-original expressions of a single concept of tender indulgence.

  • majorityParallel model: being pampered and delighting oneself are co-original expressions of one affective concept, supported by the Arabic cognate ghanija.; HALOT, s.v. ענג; W. Gesenius, Hebraisches und Aramaisches Handworterbuch uber das Alte Testament, 18th ed. (Berlin: Springer, 2007), s.v. ענג; Tryggve Kronholm, ענג, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 212-219; W. A. VanGemeren, gen. ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), vol. 3
  • minorityLinear derivation: physical softness is the kernel, with luxury and then affective delight as secondary extensions.; BDB, s.v. ענג; R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, and B. K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), entry 1648; M. Z. Kaddari, A Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2006), s.v. ענג
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, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906), 772, s.v. ענגlexicon
  • L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000), 2:851-852, s.v. ענגlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 6, Samekh-Pe (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007), s.v. ענגlexicon
  • W. Gesenius, Hebraisches und Aramaisches Handworterbuch uber das Alte Testament, 18th ed., ed. Rudolf Meyer and Herbert Donner (Berlin: Springer, 2007), s.v. ענגlexicon
  • Tryggve Kronholm, ענג, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. J. Botterweck, H. Ringgren, and H.-J. Fabry, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), 212-219dictionary
  • W. A. VanGemeren, gen. ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), vol. 3, GK 6695-6697, 9503dictionary
  • R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, and B. K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), entry 1648dictionary
  • John Goldingay, What Happens to Ms Babylon in Isaiah 47, Why, and Who Says So?, Tyndale Bulletin 47.2 (1996): 223-224article
  • Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001), 476-479commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 56-66, AB 19B (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 179-183commentary
  • John Goldingay, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 56-66, ICC (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2014), ad Isa 58:13-14commentary
  • John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40-66, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), ad Isa 58:13-14commentary
  • Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40-66, Eerdmans Critical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), ad Isa 47:1 and Isa 55:2commentary
  • Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66: A Commentary, OTL (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1969), 336-341commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996), ad Deut 28:54-56commentary
  • Richard D. Nelson, Deuteronomy: A Commentary, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002), 331-334commentary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 21-37, WBC 18A (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006), ad Job 22:26commentary
  • Hans-Joachim Kraus, Psalms 1-59: A Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1988), ad Ps 37commentary
  • M. Sokoloff, A Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic of the Byzantine Period, 2nd ed. (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2002), s.v. ענגlexicon

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

All attested forms of עָנֹג

hithpael imperfect 2ms

תִּתְעַנַּג, תִּתְעַנָּג

Isa 58:14, Job 22:26

hithpael conjunctive-imperfect 3fs

וְתִתְעַנַּג

Isa 55:2

hithpael consecutive-perfect 2mp

וְהִתְעַנַּגְתֶּם

Isa 66:11

hithpael consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְהִתְעַנְּגוּ

Psa 37:11

hithpael imperative 2ms

הִתְעַנַּג

Psa 37:4

hithpael imperfect 2mp

תִּתְעַנָּגוּ

Isa 57:4

hithpael imperfect 3ms

יִתְעַנָּג

Job 27:10

hithpael infinitive-construct construct

הִתְעַנֵּג

Deu 28:56

pual passive-participle f s absolute

מְּעֻנָּגָה

Jer 6:2