StrongerBible

qarqa

קַרְקַע

HebrewH7172“floor, bottom”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Num 5:171Ki 6:15 (2×)1Ki 6:161Ki 6:301Ki 7:7 (2×)Amo 9:3
Root family
Word studykar-KAHnoun

What qarqa means

the floor: the flat lowest surface of a bounded space, whether a building's floor or the bed of the sea

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is a builder's word. Five of its eight appearances come from the account of Solomon's temple, where it marks the level a room starts from:

  • the cedar paneling runs from the floor of the house up to the ceiling beams (1 Kings 6:15)
  • the inner sanctuary is walled in cedar from the floor up to the walls (1 Kings 6:16)
  • the whole floor of the house is overlaid with gold (1 Kings 6:30)

In each case it names a surface that workmen laid and finished, not bare earth someone happens to be standing on.

Because the core idea is the base surface of a bounded space, the word can go underwater. Amos pictures people trying to hide from God in the depths, and Hebrew calls that place the sea's floor, using the same term as for the floor of the temple. English has to switch words there, so the echo disappears.

It helps to see what the word is not. It is not soil or open country (אֲדָמָה), and it is not the loose dirt that settles on a surface (עָפָר). Numbers 5:17 sets the two side by side: the priest takes dust that lies on the tabernacle floor. One is the material, the other is the surface holding it.

Nuances

1athe floor of a building: the finished surface underfoot inside a structure
TranslatabilityDirect
Num 5:171Ki 6:15 (2×)1Ki 6:161Ki 6:301Ki 7:7 (2×)
1Ki 7:7

Whether 1 Kings 7:7 should be read as the Hebrew has it, "from the floor to the floor," or corrected with the ancient versions to "from the floor to the rafters."

  • contestedKeep the Masoretic Text as written: the cedar ran from one floor level to the other, that is, the full height of the hall.; Mordechai Cogan, I Kings, Anchor Yale Bible (2001)
  • contestedCorrect the second word with the Syriac and Targum to "rafters" or "beams," giving "from the floor to the rafters."; John Gray, I & II Kings, Old Testament Library, 2nd ed. (1970)
1bthe bottom of the sea: the ground lying under deep water
Amo 9:3

What scholars say about qarqa

The critical lexicons agree on a narrow range and record no competing proposal about the sense: BDB gives "floor, bottom" (of the tabernacle and temple; of the sea), and HALOT and DCH the same. The word is confined to eight occurrences, five of them in the description of Solomon's building work in 1 Kings 6 to 7, one in the ordeal rite of Numbers 5:17, and one in Amos 9:3 of the sea floor. The derivation is uncertain and is usually compared with Semitic terms for level or flat ground; cognate forms in Aramaic and in post-biblical Hebrew keep the same "ground, floor" sense, out of which rabbinic Hebrew developed the standing legal use of qarqa for landed property (Jastrow). The one textual question in the group is 1 Kings 7:7, where the Masoretic Text reads "from the floor to the floor" and the Syriac and Targum support "from the floor to the rafters," the reading adopted by many modern translations and weighed in the standard commentaries (Gray; Cogan).

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. קרקעlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. קרקעlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. קרקעlexicon
  • Marcus Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, s.v. קרקעlexicon
  • Mordechai Cogan, I Kings, Anchor Yale Bible (2001)commentary
  • John Gray, I & II Kings, Old Testament Library, 2nd ed. (1970)commentary

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

All attested forms of קַרְקַע

m s construct

קַרְקַע, קַּרְקַע

Num 5:17, 1Ki 6:15, 1Ki 6:30, Amo 9:3, 1Ki 6:15

m s absolute

קַּרְקַע, קַּרְקָע

1Ki 6:16, 1Ki 7:7, 1Ki 7:7