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shebanq

נָקֹד nāqōd – speckled

Semantic Fields: Colours   
Author(s): John E. Hartley
First published: 2026-05-20
Citation: John E. Hartley, נָקֹד nāqōd – speckled,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026

Introduction

Grammatical type: adjective.
Occurrences: 9x HB (9/0/0); 0x Sir; 0x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 9x).

  • Torah: Gen 30:32 (2x), 33, 35, 39; 31:8 (2x), 10, 12.

7. Conclusion

A.1 The colour lexeme נקד occurs only in Gen always in referencing ‘small spots’ on a animal’s coat. Most likely the colour of the spots was a non-dominant colour for the given species; for goats the spots were white and black for sheep. נקד, then, was a contextualised colour lexeme used by ancient shepherds for identifying members of the flock with small dots or specks.

For this entry, see further John E. Hartley, The Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Colour Lexemes (2010), 145-149 (Printed publications).

Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database