שק

Forms

שַׂק (śaq) noun, masculine, plural שַׂקִּים^[1][4] Pausal שָׂק, with suffix שַׂקּוֹ, plural שַׂקִּים, with suffix שַׂקֵּיהֶם.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *śaqq- (“sack”), a noun common to the Semitic languages.^[7] It is kept in Akkadian saqqu (“sack, sackcloth”),^[8][9] Ugaritic ṯq,^[10] Old and Imperial Aramaic ⟨šq⟩, later Aramaic סַקָּא (saqqā), Classical Syriac ܣܲܩܵܐ (saqqā)^[11] and Ge'ez ሠቅ (śaqq).^[5][12] Gesenius–Buhl also compares Egyptian sꜣgꜣ, a woollen loincloth worn by Asiatics, and a Coptic word for “sack”, and Schwally even suggested an Egyptian origin.^[6][5] Rabin, following Bertoldi, derived the word from an Anatolian language through Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos);^[12] Noonan rejects this, as the Greek form gives no real support to it.^[12] The Semitic word is the source of the Greek one.^[7][10][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun occurs 48 times.^[1] In the Joseph story it is a sack for grain: Joseph orders each brother's silver returned ʾîš ʾel-śaqqô, “each to his sack” (Genesis 42:25).^[5][1] In the same story Jacob, mourning Joseph, wayyāśem śaq bəmāṯnāw, “put sackcloth on his loins” (Genesis 37:34).^[5][1]

Semantic evolution

The coarse cloth of sacks, dark and made of hair, was worn as a sign of mourning and humiliation, either as a loose garment or as a piece tied round the hips: the usual phrase is ḥāḡar śaq “to gird on sackcloth”.^[5][6] It went with fasting and ashes (Nehemiah 9:1, Esther 4:1, Daniel 9:3), and the people of Nineveh put on śaqqîm when they repented (Jonah 3:5).^[6][1] The prophet of Isaiah 20:2 wore sackcloth on his loins.^[6] Akkadian saqqu had the same mourning sense only in an inscription of Nabonidus, which the CAD takes to reflect a West Semitic custom.^[9]

The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos) almost every time.^[1] Rabbinic Hebrew has the noun in the form סַק, and the word continues as Modern Hebrew שק (sak).^[5][4]

Timeline

• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 14 occurrences in Genesis to Kings: the grain sacks of Genesis 42 and the sackcloth of mourning.^[1][5]
• Prophets – 20 occurrences, nearly all of mourning and penitence.^[1][6]
• Late Biblical Hebrew – sackcloth with fasting and ashes in Esther, Daniel and Nehemiah.^[1][6]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos).^[14][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 36 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, nearly all in biblical scrolls.^[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. a sack for grain.^[5][17]
2. sackcloth, the coarse hair cloth worn in mourning and penitence.^[5][6]

Descendants

• Greek σάκκος (sákkos), whence Latin saccus^[13][7]
• Modern Hebrew שק (sak)^[4]

Usage notes

The Aramaic of Daniel has an unrelated noun שָׁק “leg” (Daniel 2:33), the cognate of Hebrew שׁוֹק (šôq, “thigh, leg”).^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
2. ^ Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (2021), BHSA: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Amstelodamensis, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2021, github.com/ETCBC/bhsa
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 Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. שַׂק²
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. שַׂק
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. saqqu
9. ^ a b Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 380
10. ^ a b del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. ṯq
11. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 1036
12. ^ a b c 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. 353
13. ^ 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. שַׂק
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
17. ^ 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. שַׂק
18. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. שָׁק
19. ^ Kaufman, Stephen A., ed., Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, cal.huc.edu, p. s.v. שק