davak · cling

What it means

davak (דָּבַק) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “cling”.

Stay firmly joined to something or someone. It is also used for faithfulness to God (Deuteronomy 10:20).

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To stay close to someone, like YHWH.
2. To pursue someone closely, right behind, until catching up.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To cling, to stay firmly joined to something, like what sticks. It is said of things (the tongue to the palate, the hand to the sword) and, above all, of persons who stay joined to another or to YHWH. In the causative form it is to pursue someone until overtaking him. Of the same family is דָּבֵק, ‘clinging’.

• The man “clings to his wife” Genesis 2:24Genesis 34:3
• Ruth clings to Naomi Ruth 1:14Ruth 2:8
• Clinging to YHWH and to his commandments Deuteronomy 10:20Joshua 23:8Psalms 119:31
• Things that stick: tongue, hand, bones Psalms 137:62 Samuel 23:10Job 19:20
• Following closely, overtaking the one who flees 1 Samuel 31:2Judges 20:42

Historical and cultural background

The laws of Numbers 36:7-9 use the verb for the inheritance: the sons of Israel “shall hold fast, each to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers”, without passing to another tribe.

How we translate it

“Cling” in its forms in most cases (“cling” 17 times, “clung” 9, “clings” 8), both with persons and with YHWH, so that it can be seen to be the same verb (“to him you shall cling”, Deuteronomy 10:20; “clings to his wife”, Genesis 2:24; “Ruth clung to her”, Ruth 1:14). When what adheres is a thing, also “stuck” (“his hand stuck to the sword”, 2 Samuel 23:10). In pursuits in war, “kept close”, “followed close” or “overtook”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• cling ×17
• clung ×9
• clings ×8
• stuck ×3
• clinging ×2
• kept close ×2
• overtook ×2
• shall hold fast ×2
• I will make stick ×1
• caught up ×1
• others ×7

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×7
• Joshua×3
• Judges×3
• Ruth×4
• 1 Samuel×2
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×3
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Job×6
• Psalms×8
• Jeremiah×3
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×3

• Genesis 2:24

  That is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

• Genesis 19:19

  Look, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have made great your loyal love that you have shown me by keeping me alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me and I die.

• Genesis 31:23

  He took his brothers with him and pursued him a journey of seven days, and caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.

• Genesis 34:3

  But his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke to the heart of the young woman.

• Numbers 36:7

  So the inheritance of the sons of Israel shall not pass from tribe to tribe, for the sons of Israel shall hold fast, each to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

• Numbers 36:9

  So the inheritance shall not pass from tribe to another tribe, for the tribes of the sons of Israel shall hold fast, each to his own inheritance.”

• Deuteronomy 10:20

  YHWH your Elohim you shall fear; him you shall serve; to him you shall cling; and by his name you shall swear.

• Deuteronomy 11:22

  For if you carefully keep all this commandment that I am commanding you to do, loving YHWH your Elohim, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him,

• Deuteronomy 13:4

  After YHWH your Elohim you shall walk, and him you shall fear, and his commandments you shall keep, and his voice you shall obey, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall cling.

• Deuteronomy 13:17

  Nothing of what is devoted to destruction shall cling to your hand, so that YHWH may turn from the burning of his anger and give you mercy and have mercy on you and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers,

• Deuteronomy 28:21

  YHWH will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you from off the ground that you are entering there to possess it.

• Deuteronomy 28:60

  And he will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.

• Deuteronomy 30:20

  loving YHWH your Elohim, listening to his voice, and clinging to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live on the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

• Joshua 22:5

  Only be very careful to do the commandment and the instruction that Moses the servant of YHWH commanded you: to love YHWH your Elohim, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

• Joshua 23:8

  but to YHWH your Elohim you shall cling, as you have done to this day.

• Joshua 23:12

  For if you do indeed turn back and cling to the rest of these nations, those that remain with you, and intermarry with them, and go in among them, and they among you,

• Judges 18:22

  They had gone some distance from the house of Micah, when the men who were in the houses that were near the house of Micah were summoned and overtook the sons of Dan.

• Judges 20:42

  So they turned before the men of Israel toward the way of the wilderness, but the war overtook them, and those who came from the cities were destroying them in their midst.

• Judges 20:45

  And they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the crag of Rimmon; and they gleaned of them on the highways five thousand men, and they pursued closely after him as far as Gidom, and struck of them two thousand men.

• Ruth 1:14

  They lifted up their voice and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

• Ruth 2:8

  Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and also do not pass on from here; and so cling to my young women.

• Ruth 2:21

  And Ruth the Moabite said, “He also said to me, ‘Cling to the young men who are mine until they have finished all the harvest that is mine.’”

• Ruth 2:23

  So she clung to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

• 1 Samuel 14:22

  And all the men of Israel who had hidden in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines had fled, and they too followed close after them in the war.

• 1 Samuel 31:2

  The Philistines kept close after Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.

• 2 Samuel 1:6

  The young man who was reporting it to him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and look, Saul was leaning on his spear; and look, the chariots and the horsemen were following him closely.

• 2 Samuel 20:2

  So all the men of Israel went up from after David and after Sheba son of Bichri; but the men of Judah clung to their king from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

• 2 Samuel 23:10

  He rose and struck the Philistines until his hand grew weary and his hand stuck to the sword; and YHWH brought about a great salvation on that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain.

• 1 Kings 11:2

  from the nations of which YHWH had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not go in among them, and they shall not go in among you; surely they will incline your heart after their gods.” To them Solomon clung in love.

• 2 Kings 3:3

  Only he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, by which he made Israel sin, he did not turn away from it.

• 2 Kings 5:27

  So the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your offspring forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, white as snow.

• 2 Kings 18:6

  He clung to YHWH; he did not turn away from following him, but kept his commandments that YHWH commanded Moses.

• 1 Chronicles 10:2

  And the Philistines kept close after Saul and after his sons, and the Philistines struck Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.

• Job 19:20

  My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

• Job 29:10

  the voice of the leaders was hidden, and their tongue to their palate stuck.

• Job 31:7

  If my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has gone after my eyes, and a stain has stuck to my palms,

• Job 38:38

  when the dust is poured into a mass, and the clods stick together?

• Job 41:17

  Each one clings to its brother; they are locked together and do not separate.

• Job 41:23

  The folds of its flesh cling together, firm upon it, it does not move.

• Psalms 22:15

  My strength has dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my palate; and in the dust of death you lay me.

And 14 more times.