StrongerBible

anaq

עֲנָק

HebrewH6060“necklace, chain, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Jdg 8:26Pro 1:9Sng 4:9
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-NAHKnoun

What anaq means

a neck ornament: a chain, collar, or string of beads worn around the neck

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This word names jewelry for one particular place on the body. All three times it appears, the text says so outright, tying the ornament to a neck or a throat, and that is what sets it apart from the other words Hebrew has for finery. It can be heavy gold or it can be a single small bead, but it is always something that hangs where the neck is.

The three settings are strikingly different, and together they show how ordinary the word is:

  • In Gideon's plunder it is the gold collars stripped off the camels of the Midianite kings, weighed in with the rest of the loot.
  • In Proverbs it is the pendants a young person is promised for holding on to a parent's teaching, paired with a garland for the head.
  • In the Song of Songs it is one piece of the bride's necklace, set beside one glance of her eye.

Hebrew names its jewelry in several ways, and this word is the one named for the neck. A crescent (שַׂהֲרוֹן) is named for its moon shape, a drop (נְטִיפָה) for the way it dangles, a badge-chain (רָבִיד) for the honor it marks, and a bead-string (חָרוּז) for the thread that holds it together. The matching Hebrew verb makes the same point from the other side: to put a necklace on someone is to hang something valuable on them, which is why Deuteronomy uses that verb for loading a released servant with parting gifts.

Nuances

1athe whole ornament: a chain, collar, or set of pendants worn around the neck
Jdg 8:26Pro 1:9
1bone bead or strand out of a necklace made of many
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Sng 4:9
Sng 4:9

What the single item named in Song of Songs 4:9 (be'achad anaq mi-tsavveronayik) actually is.

  • majorityOne bead, pendant, or strand of a multi-strand necklace, matched in the parallel line by one glance of the bride's eye.; Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs, Anchor Bible 7C (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977), on Song 4:9; Septuagint, Song of Songs 4:9 (en mia enthemati, "by one inset ornament")
  • minorityA lock or strand of hair on the neck rather than a piece of jewelry.; Vulgate, Song of Songs 4:9 (in uno crine colli tui, "by one strand of your neck")

What scholars say about anaq

BDB, HALOT, and DCH all gloss the noun "necklace, neck-pendant, chain" and list the same three attestations (Judges 8:26; Proverbs 1:9; Song 4:9). Following Paul de Lagarde, BDB flags the noun as a possible Aramaism, which if correct makes the ornament sense a comparatively late arrival in Hebrew and weakens any claim that the Anakim were named as necklace-wearers in high antiquity. The comparative Semitic evidence for a root associated with the neck is Arabic unuq "neck" with the adjective a'naq "long-necked", cited already by Gesenius; Akkadian unqu "ring, signet" is sometimes adduced for the encircling idea but is not a secure cognate. The related Hebrew verb supports the same core: Psalm 73:6 has pride worn as a necklace, and Deuteronomy 15:14 uses the verb of furnishing a released Hebrew slave liberally, which Rashi and modern grammarians take as laying gifts on the neck. The ancient versions separate ornament from people cleanly: the Septuagint renders the noun kloios "collar, chain" at Judges 8:26 and Proverbs 1:9 but enthema "inset ornament" at Song 4:9, while Jerome uses torques in the first two passages and crinis "a lock, a strand" in the third, a split worth citing in any discussion of what the object physically was. Whether this noun and the people-name behind the Anakim are one lexeme is genuinely open: Gesenius derived the name from a root of neck-length and stature; BDB judged the individual Anak a later and erroneous eponym back-formed from the people (Joshua 15:13; the spelling anoq at Joshua 21:11); Tigay lists the Semitic "long-necked" reading, a Canaanite or Mediterranean place-and-people element, and Greek anax "nobleman" without choosing among them; and MacLaurin argued for Greek anax (Mycenaean wanax) "lord", a proposal later taken up by Margalith, Roemer, Galbraith, and Niesiolowski-Spano. Against a Hebrew-speaking "necklace clan" stand the Hurrian names of Anak's sons Sheshai and Talmai (de Vaux; Kempinsky; Hess) and the Egyptian Execration Texts' Iy-anaq, whose three rulers bear Semitic names and whose identification with the Anakim Albright urged but which remains unproven.

Where scholars disagree about anaq

Whether the noun meaning "necklace" and the people-name Anak behind the Anakim are one Hebrew word or two words that merely share a spelling.

  • contestedBoth go back to one Semitic root associated with the neck, so the Anakim are either the long-necked ones or the wearers of neck-ornaments. The lexicons still relate the two entries this way, and the rabbinic tradition played on the connection.; Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, s.v. anaq; Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. anaq; Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vol. 2, s.v. anaq
  • minorityThe people-name is unrelated to the jewelry word and comes from Greek anax (Mycenaean wanax) "lord", making the sons of Anak something like members of an aristocracy.; E. C. B. MacLaurin, "Anak/Anax," Vetus Testamentum 15, no. 4 (1965): 468-474; Othniel Margalith, Beit Mikra 25 (1986): 359-364; Thomas Roemer, Semitica 57 (2015): 195
  • contestedThe people-name is an unanalyzable non-Semitic label for the pre-Israelite, partly Hurrian population at Hebron, with no link to the Hebrew jewelry word; the Hurrian names of Anak's sons Sheshai and Talmai point this way, and the biblical texts stress the height of these clans rather than their necks.; Richard S. Hess, "Non-Israelite Personal Names in the Book of Joshua," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58 (1996): 205-214; Roland de Vaux, Revue Biblique 55 (1948)
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

  • Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. anaqlexicon
  • Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vol. 2, s.v. anaqlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 6, s.v. anaqlexicon
  • Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, s.v. anaqlexicon
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs, Anchor Bible 7C (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977)commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1996)commentary
  • Rashi, commentary on Deuteronomy 15:14commentary
  • E. C. B. MacLaurin, "Anak/Anax," Vetus Testamentum 15, no. 4 (1965): 468-474article
  • Richard S. Hess, "Non-Israelite Personal Names in the Book of Joshua," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 58 (1996): 205-214article
  • Roland de Vaux, Revue Biblique 55 (1948)article
  • W. F. Albright, Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 8 (1928): 223-256article
  • Othniel Margalith, Beit Mikra 25 (1986): 359-364article
  • Thomas Roemer, Semitica 57 (2015): 195article
  • Septuagint, Judges 8:26; Proverbs 1:9; Song of Songs 4:9ancient-version
  • Vulgate, Judges 8:26; Proverbs 1:9; Song of Songs 4:9ancient-version

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

All attested forms of עֲנָק

f p absolute

עֲנָקוֹת

Jdg 8:26

m p absolute

עֲנָקִים

Pro 1:9

m s absolute

עֲנָק

Sng 4:9