to move on from where you were, or to shift something out of the place it held
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
The picture behind every use is plain: something is no longer on the spot it held. Abram pulls up camp and moves on toward the hills; Isaac walks away from a well the local herdsmen fought him over and digs another one further off. Nothing forceful is implied, only a change of position.
Job's poetry takes that quiet picture and presses it against things that are supposed to stay put. Bildad asks whether a rock will be shifted out of its place just to suit Job, and Job answers with a God who moves mountains before they even notice. The same ordinary word that carried a traveler's tent now carries the foundations of the earth.
From there it stretches in three directions, each one the same motion applied to something that is not a body in space:
Years are what a person moves through, so the wicked "grow old" and a weeping eye wears out
Words move away from a speaker, which is how Job's friends are left with nothing more to say
A text is moved over into another collection, which is what Hezekiah's men did with a further set of Solomon's proverbs
Hebrew has plainer words for most of this. נָסַע is the everyday verb for pulling up tent pegs and setting out on a journey, and סוּר is the ordinary word for turning aside or taking something away. This verb is rarer and quieter than either, and it claims only that a thing has left the place it was in.
Nuances
1ato pull up and move on to another place
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 12:8Gen 26:22
1bto be shifted out of a fixed place, or to shift something out of it
TranslatabilityDirect
Job 9:5Job 14:18Job 18:4
1cto advance in years: to grow old and wear out
TranslatabilityApproximate
Job 21:7Psa 6:7(8)*
1dof words: to move away from a speaker, leaving him with nothing more to say
Job 32:15*
1eto move a text over into another collection: to copy it out
keeps the picture of moving forward, so age is a distance travelled rather than a condition arrived atJob 21:7
Both
both describe the years telling on someone as time passesPsa 6:7
Only grow old
the English phrase names a settled state of being aged, and it sounds odd of a body part, where the Hebrew can be used of an eye wearing out
“move on”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“copy out”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ataq differs from similar Hebrew words
נָסַעThe standard verb for breaking camp and setting out on a journey, with the tent pegs and the destination in view; this word notes only that someone is no longer where he was.
It stretches from movement in space to movement through time, describing people who go on living and grow old and strong in years, and an eye worn out with grief.Job 21:7Psa 6:7
In Job it is the word for things that were never supposed to budge at all: mountains God overturns before they know it, and a rock that will not shift out of its place for anyone's argument.Job 9:5Job 18:4
It is stretched to things that are not physical at all: words that move away from a speaker so that he has nothing left to say, and a collection of sayings copied over from one place into another.Job 32:15Pro 25:1
Both
Both describe someone pulling up from where he had stopped and moving on to the next place, and the two sit side by side in the story of Abram, who moves his tent from one hill to another and then goes on by stages toward the south.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22Gen 12:9Gen 13:11
Both can picture a thing torn out of the fixed place it held: hope pulled up like a tree, a life struck like a tent, a mountain worn away from where it stood.Job 19:10Isa 38:12Job 14:18
This is the verb of an organized march: a whole camp strikes its tents and moves forward one stage at a time, in order and at a signal. Whole chapters are built out of it, listing where the people set out from and where they camped next.Num 10:12Num 33:5Num 9:18Exo 40:36
It can be used of putting others in motion, not just moving oneself: a leader makes the people set out, and God makes a wind spring up and sweep across the sky.Exo 15:22Num 11:31Psa 78:26
It also covers the physical work of wrenching something loose by hand from where it was fixed: cutting blocks of stone out of the quarry, or pulling the gates of a city up out of the ground and carrying them off.1Ki 5:17Ecc 10:9Jdg 16:3
סוּרThe common, all-purpose word for turning aside or taking something away; this word is far rarer and pictures a thing simply leaving its place, including places nothing is supposed to leave.
It is used of pulling up camp and shifting the whole household on to a new spot, moving forward to settle rather than briefly leaving a path.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22
It can describe movement through time rather than space, so it is used for the wicked who go on living and growing old, and for an eye worn out with grief.Job 21:7Psa 6:7
It is the word for carrying sayings over from one collection into another, which is why the men of Hezekiah are said to have "copied out" the proverbs of Solomon.Pro 25:1
Both
Both describe something solid being dislodged from the place where it had stood, leaving that place empty.Num 12:10Job 14:18Job 18:4
Both can say that something people were counting on has gone from them, whether the protection they trusted or the words they had left to say.Num 14:9Job 32:15
It is the standard word for abandoning the way God told people to walk, so it carries a moral charge the other word never has: leaving the road of the commandments and going after other gods.Exo 32:8Deu 5:32Deu 11:16Deu 17:17
It covers taking a thing off or out of something it was part of: a ring off a hand, a covering off a roof, the fat and kidneys cut out of a sacrifice.Gen 41:42Gen 8:13Lev 3:4
It is the word for stepping off your route for a moment, whether to look at something or to accept a night's lodging, with every intention of carrying on afterward.Exo 3:3Gen 19:2Gen 19:3
It is what people beg God to do with an affliction, so it becomes the ordinary word for lifting a plague or a sickness off those suffering under it.Exo 8:8Exo 10:17Num 21:7Deu 7:15
מוּשׁMeans to depart or give way, and clusters in solemn promises that something will never do so; this word carries no such weight and is at home in ordinary travel and in poetry about rocks and years.
Used of travelers pulling up camp and going on to the next place, so it carries the sense of moving forward rather than merely leaving: Abram moved on toward the hill country, and Isaac moved on from a contested well to dig another.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22
Stretches from space to time, so it can mean to advance in years or wear out with age: the wicked go on living and grow old, and an eye grows weak and worn under the strain of enemies.Job 21:7Psa 6:7
Covers carrying words over from one collection into another, which is why it is the word used for how Hezekiah's men copied out an older set of sayings.Pro 25:1
Both
Both describe heavy, fixed things being shifted out of place, the sort of thing that ought to stay put: a mountain split and moved aside, a peg driven into solid ground that gives way, a boulder wrenched from its spot.Zec 14:4Isa 22:25Job 9:5Job 14:18
Both turn up where a writer insists that something cannot be budged from where it stands: an idol that will not stir from its spot no matter who calls on it, and a rock that will not be shifted just because one angry man demands it.Isa 46:7Job 18:4
Its most typical use is a flat denial: something does not go away, does not break off, keeps on being there. The pillar of cloud never left its place in front of the people, and God's promise of peace is said to outlast the mountains.Exo 13:22Isa 54:10Jos 1:8Jer 31:36
Used of a person refusing to leave another person's side: Joshua stayed on inside the tent after Moses went back, and Gideon begged his visitor not to stir until he came back with a gift.Exo 33:11Jdg 6:18
Names trouble that will not clear out, a nuisance that has moved in and stays: violence that never leaves a city's streets, plunder that never lets up, harm that settles into a household for good.Psa 55:11Nam 3:1Pro 17:13
Reaches past physical objects to guilt and to bondage: God takes a land's guilt away in a single day, and people under judgment cannot work their necks free of the yoke.Zec 3:9Mic 2:3
זָקֵןThe ordinary word for growing old, describing the settled condition of age; where this word means to grow old it keeps the picture of advancing through the years and wearing out.
Its home use is ordinary travel: a man pulls up camp and moves on to another spot. Abram moves on toward the hills east of Bethel, and Isaac walks away from a contested well and digs another one further off. Growing old has nothing to do with this word's basic picture of leaving one place for another.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22
Job's poetry uses it of things that are supposed to stay put being shifted out of place. God moves mountains before they know it, water wears a rock out of its spot, and Bildad asks whether the rock will be moved just to suit Job. Nothing in the aging word can be pushed, carried, or dislodged like this.Job 9:5Job 14:18Job 18:4
It stretches to things that are not bodies in space but still move off: words leave Job's friends so that they have nothing more to say, and a further set of Solomon's sayings is moved over into another collection by Hezekiah's men, which is why some translations there read "copied out" and others read "transcribed".Job 32:15Pro 25:1
Both
Both can say that a person has advanced far in years. One is the ordinary word for it, used of the psalmist looking back over a lifetime and of Sarah hearing she will bear a son; the other reaches the same point by its own route, since Job complains that the wicked live on, move on into old age, and grow strong.Psa 37:25Gen 18:13Job 21:7
Both can also describe something other than a whole person wearing down as time passes. A tree stump's root grows old in the ground, and the psalmist's eye wears out with grief, which is why translations there read "grows weak" or "wastes away" as easily as "grows old".Job 14:8Psa 6:7
This is the plain word that simply calls a person old, with no other picture behind it. The text uses it to state the condition of a named figure: Abraham was old, Isaac was old, Joshua was old, Eli was old, David was old. The other word never just labels somebody aged; it always keeps its picture of something leaving the place it held.Gen 24:1Gen 27:1Jos 13:11Sa 4:181Ki 1:1
It marks the turning point where a long life hands things on: the blessing, the leadership, the kingdom. Isaac calls his son in to bless him because he is old, Joshua gathers Israel because he is old, Samuel appoints his sons to judge because he is old, and David makes Solomon king because he is old. None of this social weight attaches to the other word.Gen 27:2Jos 23:21Sa 8:11Sa 8:51Ch 23:1
It also names the point past which something is no longer possible for a person: Sarah laughs because she is too old to bear a child, and Naomi tells her daughters in law she is too old to have a husband. The other word never sets that kind of limit.Gen 18:12Gen 18:13Rut 1:12Gen 19:31
ataq in the other biblical languages
μεθίστημιGreek“to move”The Greek verb for shifting or removing something out of its place, matching this word where mountains and rocks are moved.
Used of people moving themselves on to a new spot. Abram pulls up camp and moves toward the hills, and Isaac walks away from a well the local herdsmen fought him over and digs another one further off. The Greek verb is always something done to a person or a thing by somebody else.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22
Stretches to cover the passing of years. Job asks why the wicked go on living and grow old in their strength, and the psalmist's eye is worn out with weeping. Time is treated as ground a person moves across, which the Greek verb never does.Job 21:7Psa 6:7
Reaches into speech and writing. Job's friends are left with nothing more to say once their words have moved away from them, and Hezekiah's men moved a further set of Solomon's sayings over into the collection they were putting together, which is why English versions there say "copied out."Job 32:15Pro 25:1
Both
Each is its language's word for moving a mountain, the standing picture of something nobody could budge. Job praises a God who removes mountains before they even notice, and Paul imagines a faith strong enough to move mountains and still counts it as nothing without love.Job 9:51Co 13:2
Both can be told from the side of the thing that gets moved rather than the one doing the moving, and neither of them implies force. A crag is shifted out of its place in Job, and the manager in the parable speaks of the day he is put out of his position.Job 14:18Luk 16:4
Takes a person out of a post or an office. The dishonest manager in the parable knows he is about to be put out of his job, and Paul's sermon says God set Saul aside as king before raising up David. The Hebrew verb never describes someone being removed from a position.Luk 16:4Act 13:22
Carries people across from one rule into another. Paul says God rescued believers out of the power of darkness and moved them over into the kingdom of his Son, so what changes is who they belong to rather than where they live.Col 1:13
Describes a crowd being shifted away from what it believed. The silversmith at Ephesus complains that Paul has talked a large crowd out of trusting gods made by hand, so the thing that moves is conviction, not anything you could point at.Act 19:26
μεταβαίνωGreek“to depart”The Greek verb for moving on from one place to another, matching this word where a traveler leaves one camp for the next.
It can mean moving on in years rather than in space, so a person or a worn out eye advances into old age. The Greek verb never touches the passing of time.Job 21:7Psa 6:7
It covers moving a text across into another collection, which is what Hezekiah's men did when they copied out an older set of sayings.Pro 25:1
Words themselves can be what moves away, so a group of speakers is left with nothing more to say.Job 32:15
It fits something wrenched out of a place it was never meant to leave, such as a rock torn from its footing.Job 14:18Job 18:4
Both
Both name the plain act of leaving one spot and settling at another, whether a herdsman shifting camp or a teacher going on to the next town.Gen 12:8Gen 26:22Mat 15:29Act 18:7
Both can be said of a mountain shifting out of its place, the Hebrew where God overturns mountains and the Greek where faith tells one to go from here to there.Job 9:5Mat 17:20
It carries the move over into the world of the spirit: a person crosses out of death and into life, or out of this world to the Father. The Hebrew verb stays with things that move in the visible world.Jhn 5:241Jn 3:14Jhn 13:1
It works as a request or an instruction aimed at a person, so a crowd can beg someone to clear out, brothers can press him to head elsewhere, and a traveling worker can be told not to keep shifting from one host to the next.Mat 8:34Jhn 7:3Luk 10:7
It marks the seam between stages of a mission, closing one round of teaching or one stay in a town and opening the next.Mat 11:1Mat 12:9
What scholars say about ataq
The standard lexica treat עתק as a single root of spatial movement. In the qal it is intransitive ("move forward, proceed"), used of a rock displaced from its place (Job 14:18; 18:4) and, of persons and body parts, of advancing in years or wearing out (Job 21:7;Psalm 6:8 Hebrew = 6:7 English). In the hiphil it is transitive or causative: to move oneself on with one's camp (Genesis 12:8; 26:22), to remove mountains (Job 9:5), and, in the specialized scribal use of Proverbs 25:1, to transcribe or transfer a body of sayings into another collection. Job 32:15 (הֶעְתִּיקוּ מֵהֶם מִלִּים) is commonly read as an impersonal construction, "words have moved away from them," though the syntax is discussed. HALOT, BDB, and DCH all keep these under one entry; the derived adjectives עָתָק "arrogant, insolent (of speech)" (H6277) and עָתִיק (H6267) are variously derived from this root of overstepping or assigned to a separate homonymous root, a question the lexica do not settle uniformly.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. עתקlexicon
BDB, s.v. עתקlexicon
DCH, s.v. עתק Ilexicon
Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 10-31 (Anchor Yale Bible 18B), on Proverbs 25:1commentary
David J. A. Clines, Job 21-37 (Word Biblical Commentary 18A), on Job 32:15commentary