StrongerBible

ataq

עָתָק

HebrewH6277“arrogant, insolent, ...”

Appears 4 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Sa 2:3Psa 31:18(19)Psa 75:5(6)Psa 94:4
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeah-TAHKadjective

What ataq means

arrogant speech: boastful, insolent words that run past their proper bounds, spoken against God or the righteous

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is a rare word, used only four times, and every time it describes the same thing: the swaggering, insolent words of the proud. It is never a quiet attitude tucked away inside a person; it is talk, spoken out loud, and the text always pairs it with a verb of speaking. Hannah names it first in her song, and the three psalms that use it are all scenes of the wicked mouthing off against God or against the people God defends.

Behind the word is a simple picture. Its root has to do with moving forward, pressing ahead, going past a marker. To speak this way is to let your words run too far, to push past the limits that should hold ordinary speech in check. The proud person's mouth advances where it has no business going, boasting and defying, and the Bible has a single word for exactly that kind of overreaching talk.

The four uses form a tight, matching set. In each one the arrogant speaker is set up for a fall: the God who reverses fortunes will silence the boaster and lift up the lowly. So the word carries a built-in irony wherever it appears. The mouth that speaks too far forward is about to be brought low.

1Sa 2:3Psa 31:18(19)Psa 75:5(6)Psa 94:4
Psa 75:5

How to construe the word in this verse: as an adjective describing an "arrogant neck" (the proud craning the neck upward), or as a noun, "to speak insolence with the neck." A related question is whether the Greek Old Testament's "do not speak iniquity against God" reflects a different Hebrew text or is an interpretive paraphrase.

  • majorityAn adjective modifying "neck": the wicked speak "with arrogant neck," a vivid picture of the proud lifting the neck in defiance. The Targum on Psalms independently supports this with "a great/haughty neck."; M. E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (Word Biblical Commentary 20; Word, 1990), 253-261; F.-L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 2 (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2005), on Ps 75
  • minorityA noun with an instrumental sense, "to speak insolence with the neck"; the Greek Old Testament and Symmachus, and some older critics, read the line instead as speaking iniquity "against God," understood by most today as a theologically driven paraphrase rather than a genuine variant text.; Septuagint (Rahlfs-Hanhart), Ps 74:6; C. A. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Psalms (ICC; T&T Clark)

What scholars say about ataq

All the major lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH, TDOT, TWOT, NIDOTTE, Gesenius 18. Aufl.) agree on the sense: "arrogant, insolent, presumptuous," of speech. Their disagreement is over etymology, not meaning. The older Gesenius/BDB/TWOT tradition anchored the word in Arabic ʿataqa ("unrestrained, free"), yielding licentious, unbridled speech; the modern HALOT/Gesenius-18/TDOT/NIDOTTE tradition anchors it in Akkadian etēqu / šūtuqu ("to pass, surpass, transgress a boundary"), yielding speech that oversteps its bounds. The two windows converge on one underlying image of forward motion without restraint. Schmoldt (TDOT) frames the root as generating two mirror-image adjectives: negatively עָתָק (insolent human speech that has advanced past its limits) and positively עַתִּיק (the venerable one advanced deep into time, as in the Aramaic "Ancient of Days" of Daniel 7). The four occurrences form a tight set: always paired with a verb of speaking (יצא, דבר, נבע) and clustered with other pride-lexemes (גבה, גאוה, בוז, קרן, צואר). The ancient versions divide: LXX 1 Reigns 2:3 has the precise μεγαλορρημοσύνη ("grandiloquence"), but the Greek Psalter flattens the word to ἀνομία / ἀδικία ("lawlessness, iniquity"), while Jerome (iuxta Hebraeos) and Aquila route it through the "aging" branch as vetera / ἀρχαῖα ("old things"), a philologically defensible but contextually strained reading; Symmachus and the Targum preserve the arrogance sense. Two further scholarly cruxes: the syntax of Psalm 75:5 (attributive "arrogant neck" vs. substantival "speak insolence"), and whether הוֹן עָתָק in Proverbs 8:18 belongs to this lexeme ("arrogant/eminent wealth," BDB) or to the "endure" branch ("enduring wealth," HALOT, DCH, Fox), which would make that verse etymologically distinct from the four "arrogant speech" passages. The Dead Sea Scrolls preserve no variant at any of the four occurrences; the divergences among the versions are exegetical, not textual.

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

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 801-802, s.v. עָתָק / עָתֵקlexicon
  • HALOT, ed. Richardson (Brill, 1994-2000), 2:904-905, s.v. עָתָקlexicon
  • H. Schmoldt, "עתק ʿātaq," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), ed. Botterweck, Ringgren, Fabry, 11:457-458dictionary
  • D. J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), s.v. עָתָקlexicon
  • R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, B. K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT), entry 1721adictionary
  • P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (Anchor Bible 8; Doubleday, 1980), 68-74commentary
  • D. T. Tsumura, The First Book of Samuel (NICOT; Eerdmans, 2007), 141-146commentary
  • M. E. Tate, Psalms 51-100 (Word Biblical Commentary 20; Word, 1990), 253-261, 481-490commentary
  • F.-L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 2 (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2005), on Ps 75commentary
  • N. deClaissé-Walford, R. A. Jacobson, B. L. Tanner, The Book of Psalms (NICOT; Eerdmans, 2014), 296-303commentary
  • The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute (CAD), vol. E, 384-405, s.v. etēqulexicon

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

All attested forms of עָתָק

m s absolute

עָתָק

1Sa 2:3, Psa 31:18, Psa 75:5, Psa 94:4