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נָתַק

to pull away

‘to pull away’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓

H5423 Strong's Hebrew
nâthaq Transliteration
/naw-thak'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 27 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

נתק (nâthaq) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to pull away.” Across 5 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Niphal). The Hebrew Bible uses it across 26 verses — moderately common. Jeremiah dominates its distribution — 7 of 26 verses. Debuting at Leviticus 22:24, it then recurs through the corpus. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
break
Modern gloss
to pull away
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H5423 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

26
distinct verses
The word appears in 26 distinct verses.
10 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
Leviticus 22:24
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Leviticus 22:24.
Nahum 1:13
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Nahum 1:13.
#1,226
by frequency
Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,226 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 26 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 1 · 4%
  • Historical 7 · 27%
  • Wisdom 5 · 19%
  • Prophets 13 · 50%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 26 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 20 verses · 77%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 5 verses · 19%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 4%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

  • King James Version: Burst 2×, He brake 2×, Sunder 2×
  • American Standard Version: Burst 2×, Sunder 2×, Were drawn away 2×
  • Berean Standard Bible: He snapped 2×, Tear off 2×, Were drawn away 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Will 2×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5423 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Burst” 2×
  • “He brake” 2×
  • “Sunder” 2×
  • “Were drawn away” 2×

Plus 22 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H5423 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Burst” 2×
  • “Sunder” 2×
  • “Were drawn away” 2×

Plus 24 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H5423 across 26 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “He snapped” 2×
  • “Tear off” 2×
  • “Were drawn away” 2×

Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5423 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Will” 2×

Plus 28 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


14 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hophal (the passive of Hiphil).

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol Meaning
𝔊 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙 the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖 the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗 the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ the Psalms
√ root (the underlying root or stem)
‖ parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
† the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 14 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

Qal

  • Pf. 1 pl. sf. וּנְתַקְּנוּהוּ consec. Ju 20:32 (on d. f. dirim. v. Ges§ 20 h); Impf. 1 s. sf. אֶתְּקֶנְךָּ Je 22:24 (cf. Ges§ 58, i); Pt. pass. נָתוּק Lv 22:24;— e.g. Judges 20:32
  • 1. draw away warriors from (כִון) city, unto (אֶל־) high road Ju 20:32. e.g. Judges 20:32
  • 2. draw or pull off ring from (מִן) finger Je 22:24 (fig. of rejection of king of Judah by י׳). e.g. Jeremiah 22:24
  • 3. pull, tear away Lv 22:24 (pass., of testicles, + מָעוּךְ, כָּתוּת, כָּרוּת). e.g. Leviticus 22:24

Niphal

  • Pf. 3 ms. נִתַּק Is 5:27; 3 pl. נִתְּקוּ Jos 4:18; Jb 17:11, נִתָּ֑קוּ Je 6:29; 10:20; Impf. 3 ms. יִנָּתֵק Ju 16:9 + 2 times; 3 mpl. וַיִּנָּֽתְקוּ Jos 8:16, יִנָּתֵ֑קוּ Is 33:20;— e.g. Isaiah 5:27
  • 1. be drawn away from (מִן) city Jos 8:16 (cf. Qal 1); of soles of feet, be drawn out (from water) unto (אֶל־) dry ground 4:18. e.g. Joshua 8:16
  • 2. be torn apart, or in two, snapped: of sandal-thong Is 5:27, strand of tow Ju 16:9 (sim.), cord Ec 4:12; especially tent-cord (in fig.) Is 33:20 Je 10:20, so יִנָּתֵק מֵאָהֳלוֹ מִבְטַחוֹ Jb 18:14; metaph. of plans (זִמֹּת) 17:11. e.g. Isaiah 5:27
  • 3. be separated, in smelting, fig., רָעִים לֹא נִתָּ֑קוּ Je 6:29. e.g. Jeremiah 6:29

Piel

  • Pf. 1 s. נִתַּקְתִּי Je 2:20; 3 pl. נִתְּקוּ 5:5; Impf. 3 ms. יְנַתֵּק Ez 17:9 ψ 107:14, וַיְנַתֵּק Ju 16:9, sf. וַיְנַתְּקֵם v 12; 2 fs. תְּנַתֵּ֑קִי Ez 23:34; 1 s. אֲנַתֵּק Na 1:13; 1 pl. נְנַתְּקָה cohort. ψ 2:3; 2 mpl. תְּנַתֵּ֑קוּ Is 58:6;— e.g. Jeremiah 2:20
  • 1. tear apart, snap, c. acc. הַיְתָרִים Ju 16:9 the cords, v 12 (+ מֵעַל זְרֹעֹתָיו); especially c. acc. מוֹסֵרוֹת, bonds (fig.) Na 1:13; Je 2:20; 5:5; 30:8 ψ 2:3; 107:14; obj. מוֹטָה Is 58:6 (‖ פַּתֵּחַ, and הַתֵּר אֲגֻדּוֹת מוֹטָה). e.g. Judges 16:9
  • 2. tear out, up, obj. roots Ez 17:9 (in fig.); tear out, away, obj. breasts 23:34 (in violent fig. of Jerus. as drunken woman). e.g. Ezekiel 17:9

Hiphil

  • 1. Inf. cstr. sf. הַתִּיקֵנוּ: draw away warriors from (מִוֹ city Jos 8:6 (= Qal 1). e.g. Joshua 8:6
  • 2. Imv. ms. sf. הַתִּקֵם drag them away like sheep to slaughter Je 12:3 (of י׳’s dealing with wicked). e.g. Jeremiah 12:3

Hophal

  • Pf. (si vera l.) הָנְתְּקוּ מִן־הָעִיר Ju 20:31 they were drawn away from the city (cf. Niph. 1), but prob. gloss, v. GFM. e.g. Judges 20:31

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.


Word origin

vb. pull, draw, tear away, apart, off (NH id.; 𝔗 נְתַק in der. species (rare), pull off, tear off; Chr Pal. Aramaic ܢܬܩ shake off, SchwallyIdiot. 58; Arabic نَتَقَ pull off, draw out, shake; Di 660 cp. Ethiopic ነተገ, ነትገ detrahere, etc.);—

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Origin: a primitive root

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 1447


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

נָתַק

  • cmp. preced. a.
  • 1. to break loose; tear out. Y. Shebi. IV, 35ᵇ bot. מקום שנהגו לקוץ יִתּוֹק לִתּוֹק וכ׳ where it is customary to cut the reeds, let him pluck them; where it is customary to pluck them &c.; Tosef. ib. III, 19 Var. יִתּוֹךְ לִתּוֹךְ. Cant. R. to VIII, 6 (ref. to Jer. XXII, 24) שהוא נוֹתֵק מלכות וכ׳ that he will tear the Davidic kingdom out of his hand; ib. משם אני נותק וכ׳ from there I shall tear loose the kingdom &c.; Pesik. Shub., p. 163ᵃ. Bekh. 33ᵇ נותק he who tears loose (testicles and throws them away); נותק אחר כורת who removes them after one has cut them (tearing off the roots). Sifra Thazr., Neg., ch. VII, Par. 5 אם נְתָקוֹ אדם if a man made it bald (נֶתֶק); (R. S. to Neg. III, 5 אם נִיתְּקוּ בידי אדם, Nif.); a. e.—Part. pass. נָתוּק (b. h.) an animal whose testicles have been forcibly removed; [oth. opin.: whose membrum has been mutilated by a violent severance]. Sifra Emor, Par. 7, ch. VII; Tosef. Yeb. X, 5. e.g. Jeremiah 22:24
  • 2. to cause oozing, to secrete. Tosef. Ter. III, 13 ענבים רכות ונוֹתְקוֹת … ואינן נוֹתְקִין וכ׳ grapes are soft and let their juice ooze out (when packed), but olives are hard and do not let their oil ooze out.; Y. ib. III, 42ᵇ top, v. דֵּיהֶא.
    • 1. to tear loose. Cant. R. l. c. (ref. to Jer. l. c.) אֲנַתֶּקְךָ אין … אֲתַקֶּנְךָ it does not sayănatteḳkha (I shall tear thee loose), but (it may be read) athaḳḳenkha (I shall restore thee, v. תָּקַן); Yalk. Jer. 303 אַתֶּקְךָ (Hif.); Pesik. l. c.
    • 2. [to tear, pull] to remonstrate, protest. Sifré Num. 115; Yalk. Num. 750 התחיל הבן ההוא מְנַתֵּק that son began to protest (against doing slave’s work); התחילו ישראל מְנַתְּקִים the Israelites remonstrated (against the laws imposed upon them); v. infra.
    • 1. to be torn loose; to fall out. Ḥull. 123ᵇ שומר העשוי לִנָּתֵק מאליו a protection (cover) which it likely to come off of itself. Nidd. 65ᵃ כיון שנִתְּקוּ שניו וכ׳ when a man’s teeth are gone; a. e.
    • 2. [to tear one’s self loose,] to remonstrate, be discontented. Sifra Aḥăré, Par. 9, ch. XIII גלוי … לִינָּתֵק בעריות it was known before the Lord that they would bear unwillingly the restrictive laws concerning sexual relations; נִיתְּקוּ בעריות they did remonstrate &c. (ref. to Num. XI, 10; v. Sabb. 130ᵃ; Yoma 75ᵃ); Yalk. Lev. 590. e.g. Numbers 11:10
    • 3. to be shifted, transformed, modified. Zeb. 5ᵇ, a. fr. אשם שנ׳ לרעיה an animal dedicated as a guilt-offering which (on account of its owner’s death &c.) has been condemned to pasture until natural death (v. סָאַב).—Y. Naz. IV, end, 53ᶜ משנ׳ מלא תעשה לעשה since it (the cutting of the hair which is forbidden to the Nazarite) has gone over from a prohibition to a positive duty (Num. VI, 18).—לאו שנ׳ לעשה a prohibition transformed into a command, i.e. a prohibitive law the transgression of which must be repaired by a succeeding act, e.g. (Lev. XIX, 13) ‘thou shalt not rob’, and (ib. V, 23) ‘he shall make restitution.’ Ḥull. 141ᵃ (for which ib. XII, 4 מצות לא תעשה שיש בה קום עשה). Yoma 85ᵇ לא תעשה שנ׳ לעשה; a. fr. e.g. Numbers 6:18
    • 4. (v. Kal 2) to enter a stage of moist decomposition. Y. Naz. VII, 56ᵇ, v. נֵצֶל.—5) (denom. of נֶתֶק) to become hairless and blanched, to be afflicted with נֶתֶק. Neg. X, 9 ונ׳ כל ראשו and his entire head became bald (v. קָרַחַת). Sifra Thazr. l. c. את שני׳ נתק בתוך נתק a person that became afflicted with a bald spot within a patch of hair surrounded by baldness (Neg. X, 7 שני נְתָקִין זה לפנים מזה; a. fr.).

נְתַק

  • ; Af. אַתֵּיק to pull, drag. Targ. Jer. XII, 3 אַתִּיקִינוֹן or אַתְּקִינוֹן (ed. אַתְקְנִ׳, ed. Lag. אַתְקִינִי׳, v. תְּקַן; h. text התיקם).
    • 1. to tear, sever. B. Kam. 9ᵇ שור דרכיה לנַתּוּקֵי an ox may be expected to tear (the rope). Bets. 10ᵇ מְנַתְּקֵּי Ms. M., v. נְתַח.
    • 2. to snatch, take away. Yoma 46ᵇ כיון דנַתְּקָהּ נתקה having snatched it (the coal from the altar), he has snatched it (and it has its sacred character no longer).
    • 3. to shift, transform. Macc. 15ᵃ ההוא לנַתּוּקֵי לאוי וכ׳ Ms. M. (Rashi לאויה, ed. לאו) this (positive command) has the function of modifying the prohibitory law (intimating the reparation in the event of its transgression); v. preced. Nif
    • 1. to be severed, snatched. Targ. Koh. IV, 12.—Yoma l. c. אינְּתִיקָה למצותה the taking it from the altar was done for an ordained use of it; a. e.
    • 2. to be set aside, be designated. Erub. 13ᵃ כיון דא׳ לשום רחל תו לא הדרא מִינַּתְּקָא וכ׳ having been originally designated (copied) for Rachel, it cannot again be converted and used for Leah; Sot. 20ᵇ. Zeb. 3ᵃ; a. e.

נֶתֶק

  • preced.) [torn out,] bald (blanched) spot on the head or in the beard. Neg. X, 2; a. fr. Pl. נְתָקִים, נְתָקִין. Ib. 1; 7; a. fr.

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 27 distinct written forms H5423 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
אֲנַתֵּ֑ק Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 30:8 1
אֲנַתֵּֽק Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Nahum 1:13 1
אֶתְּקֶֽ/נְךָּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 22:24 1
הַתִּיקֵ֤/נוּ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Joshua 8:6 1
הַתִּקֵ/ם֙ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 12:3 1
הָנְתְּק֖וּ Verb, Hophal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Judges 20:31 1
וְ/נָת֣וּק Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Leviticus 22:24 1
וַ/יְנַתֵּק֙ Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Judges 16:9 1
וַ/יִּנָּתְק֖וּ Verb, Niphal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Joshua 8:16 1
וַֽ/יְנַתְּקֵ֛/ם Verb, Piel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Judges 16:12 1
וּֽ/נְתַקְּנֻ֔/הוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural Judges 20:32 1
יְנַתֵּ֜ק Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezekiel 17:9 1
יְנַתֵּֽק Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Psalms 107:14 1
יִנָּתֵ֣ק Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 18:14 1
יִנָּתֵ֤ק Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Judges 16:9 1
יִנָּתֵֽק Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Ecclesiastes 4:12 1
יִנָּתֵֽקוּ Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 33:20 1
נְֽ֭נַתְּקָה Verb, Piel, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Plural Psalms 2:3 1
נִתְּק֑וּ Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Job 17:11 1
נִתְּק֖וּ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 5:5 1
נִתְּק֗וּ Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Joshua 4:18 1
נִתַּ֖ק Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 5:27 1
נִתַּ֨קְתִּי֙ Verb, Piel, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 2:20 1
נִתָּ֑קוּ Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 10:20 1
נִתָּֽקוּ Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 6:29 1
תְּנַתֵּ֑קִי Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular Ezekiel 23:34 1
תְּנַתֵּֽקוּ Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 58:6 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5423, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derived from this word

Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 26 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 26 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

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