כִּנְעָה
a package
Definition
The Hebrew noun כִּנְעָה (kinʻâh) refers to a bundle or package of goods, specifically items that are gathered and bound together for transport or storage. In its single biblical occurrence in Jeremiah 10:17, it describes the 'wares' or 'bundles' that the people of Judah are told to gather as they prepare for exile. The term implies items that have been collected and secured, likely for a journey. It carries the sense of portable property or possessions that one can carry when forced to relocate.
Biblical Usage
This word is used only once in the Old Testament, in Jeremiah 10:17. It appears in a prophetic context of impending judgment, where the prophet Jeremiah instructs the inhabitants of Judah to gather their 'bundles' from the ground because God is about to hurl them out of the land. The usage is entirely practical, describing the act of collecting one's portable belongings in preparation for forced displacement and exile.
Etymology
The noun כִּנְעָה (kinʻâh) is derived from the root כָּנַע (kānaʻ, H3665), which generally means 'to be humble' or 'to subdue.' In this specific nominal form, the sense shifts to 'folding' or 'bending together,' hence a bundled package. It is conceptually related to כָּנַס (kānas, H3664), meaning 'to gather' or 'assemble,' reinforcing the idea of items collected and bound into a single unit.
Semantic Range
In the ancient Near East, bundling goods was a common practice for travel, trade, or relocation. For the people of Judah facing exile, gathering their 'kinʻâh' would have been a tangible, urgent preparation for a traumatic journey. The command to do so in Jeremiah 10:17 visually underscores the immediacy of God's judgment—life as they knew it was being uprooted, and they could only take what they could carry.
צְרוֹר (tserôr, H6872) — a bundle or bag, often for carrying money or precious items; more general than כִּנְעָה. אֲגֻדָּה (ʼaguddâh, H92) — a band, bundle, or binding; can refer to a sheaf of grain or a league of people.
Word Details
How this works
Hebrew definitions are from Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906) and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890), both public domain. BDB was groundbreaking for its era but reflects 19th-century assumptions about Semitic etymology. Modern scholarship (HALOT, DCH) has revised many entries. Use these definitions as a starting point for exploration, not as the final word on a term's meaning in context.
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