Etymologically
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ברקת

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Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: bāreqeṯ; in Ezekiel 28:13 bārəqaṯ[1][2]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: barrēqət[3]

Forms

בָּרֶקֶת (bāreqeṯ) noun, feminine[4] Also בָּרְקַת (Ezekiel 28:13), which HALOT treats as a by-form of the same word.[5][6]

Etymology

It is from Biblical Hebrew בָּרָק (bārāq, “lightning, flash”), literally “the flashing one”, the root of the noun for lightning;[7][8] Noonan argues that the root ⟨brq⟩ “to flash, shine” is the natural source of a gem's name.[7][8][4] Neo-Babylonian barraqtu is a gem of the same name, set in gold rings, and Classical Syriac ܒܪܩܐ (bārqā) is used for it in the Peshitta.[9][8] Gesenius–Buhl thought Hebrew had it from the Babylonian word.[10] Wiktionary instead reconstructs Proto-Semitic *wVrrVḳānt- (“green gemstone”), from the root ⟨w-r-ḳ⟩ “to be green”.[11]

Older scholars connected it with a Sanskrit word for the emerald, and HALOT still gives that comparison.[2][4][10] Noonan rejects it: the Sanskrit word is late and post-Vedic, Indologists themselves take it from Semitic, and there is no sign that green gems reached the Levant from India in the first millennium BC.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The gem is the third stone in the top row of the high priest's breastplate, ʾōḏem piṭḏâ ūḇāreqeṯ “carnelian, topaz and bāreqeṯ” (Exodus 28:17, repeated in 39:10), in the Priestly source.[1][4][9] Ezekiel 28:13 lists it among the precious stones that covered the king of Tyre in Eden.[1][8]

Semantic evolution

The Septuagint, Josephus and the Vulgate take it to be the emerald, Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos) in the Septuagint of Exodus.[4][1][8] HALOT identifies it as a dark-green beryl, found in the hills between Aswan and the Red Sea.[2] Noonan cautions that the ancient emerald covered several green stones, and that true emeralds are not found in Mesopotamia before the 4th century BC or in Egypt before the Ptolemies.[8] The Greek word itself is held to come from a Semitic source: Huehnergard derives English emerald through Greek smaragdos from a word akin to barraqtu and bāreqeṯ, and Noonan notes that Herodotus links the gem with Phoenicia.[12][8] The Targum has Aramaic ברקתא (bāriqtā).[2][13] Modern Hebrew ברקת (baréket) is the emerald.[11]

Timeline

  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – the breastplate of the high priest in the Priestly source, Exodus 28:17 and 39:10.[4][1]
  • Prophetic books – bārəqaṯ among the gems of the king of Tyre, Ezekiel 28:13.[1][2]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek σμάραγδος (smáragdos).[14][1]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – four occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a green precious stone, traditionally the emerald; perhaps a dark-green beryl.[2][4][8]

Word family

  • בָּרָק (bārāq)

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew ברקת (baréket)[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  2. ^ a b c d e f Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. בָּרֶקֶת
  3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. בָּרֶקֶת
  5. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. בָּרְקַת
  6. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. בָּרְקַת
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. בָּרֶקֶת
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Noonan, Benjamin J. (2019), Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact, University Park: Eisenbrauns (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 14), p. 327
  9. ^ a b Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 60
  10. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. בָּרֶקֶת
  11. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ Kaufman, Stephen A., ed., Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, cal.huc.edu
  14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
  16. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss