This Hebrew verb concerns being cleared or released, with the particular liability or obligation identified by its setting. Abraham tells his servant that he will be released from the marriage oath if the woman is unwilling to follow him.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Reader summary
Full entry for נָקָה (H5352) · Open the biblical lexicon
This Hebrew verb concerns being cleared or released, with the particular liability or obligation identified by its setting. Abraham tells his servant that he will be released from the marriage oath if the woman is unwilling to follow him.
The BSB source-word alignment has 44 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include go unpunished (8), . . . (6), acquit me (2), leave anyone unpunished (2), leave the guilty unpunished (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 24:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (11), Proverbs (7), Numbers (5), Exodus (4).
This Hebrew verb concerns being cleared or released, with the particular liability or obligation identified by its setting. Abraham tells his servant that he will be released from the marriage oath if the woman is unwilling to follow him. Exodus declares the Lord's compassion and forgiveness while insisting that He will not leave the guilty unpunished. Psalm 19 asks for cleansing from hidden faults and protection from willful sins.
An oath release, an announcement about divine justice, and a prayer concerning sin are distinct uses. The word does not make every difficulty evidence of guilt or allow a teacher to announce another person's acquittal. Teaching should name the obligation or offense at issue and distinguish the text's judgment from a reader's unsupported accusation.
Genesis describes conditional release from an oath, Exodus holds forgiveness beside divine justice, and Psalm 19 turns the concern for hidden faults into prayer.
And if the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.”
Abraham releases his servant from the oath if the woman is unwilling to follow, while maintaining the instruction not to take Isaac back there.
Maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
The Lord's declaration names forgiveness of iniquity, transgression, and sin alongside His refusal to leave guilt unpunished; neither clause erases the other.
Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.
The speaker asks to be cleansed from hidden faults after praising the Lord's instruction, then prays that willful sins will not rule him.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Physical cleansing extends to moral/legal innocence; judicial acquittal is the word's primary theological usage
Physical cleansing extends to moral/legal innocence; judicial acquittal is the word's primary theological usage
to be (or make) clean (literally or figuratively); by implication (in an adverse sense) to be bare, i.e. extirpated BDB: be empty Usage: acquit × at all, × altogether, be blameless, cleanse, (be) clear(-ing), cut off, be desolate, be free, be (hold) guiltless, be (hold) innocent, × by no means, be quit, be (leave) unpunished, × utterly, × wholly.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 44 lexical occurrence verses.
נָקָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Release must be understood in relation to something specific. Abraham's servant receives a clear condition under which the oath no longer binds him; the woman's unwillingness to follow is acknowledged rather than overridden by the commission. Exodus speaks within the Lord's self-declaration, holding abundant compassion and forgiveness beside serious accountability for wrongdoing.
Psalm 19 supplies the voice of prayer rather than a verdict pronounced over someone else: the speaker asks for cleansing from faults he cannot fully discern and protection from deliberate sin. Together these settings sharpen the difference between obligation, culpability, forgiveness, and self-examination. They do not provide a shortcut for resolving every question about inherited consequences or divine judgment.
Teaching can invite honest confession and confidence in God's mercy while refusing unsupported diagnoses of another person's pain.
Ps.19.12
The governed Hebrew record supports the range of being clear or free from liability. Negation and the identified object matter: release from an oath, being unpunished, and cleansing from faults must be read through their separate constructions and contexts.
Romans 3:24-26 describes justification by grace through redemption in Christ and the demonstration of God's righteousness. This supplies a canonical comparison concerning mercy and justice, not a claim that the Hebrew verb alone contains Paul's complete explanation.