nasag · overtake

What it means

nasag (נָשַׂג) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “overtake”.

Reach, catch up with; also attain, afford.

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 reach someone who is ahead.
2. To get hold of, have sufficient.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To overtake, to reach: to come up to someone or something, above all to catch up with one who flees. Hence, in the laws, one’s means reaching, having enough to pay.

• Pursuing and overtaking Exodus 14:9Genesis 44:41 Samuel 30:8
• Blessings and curses that overtake Deuteronomy 28:2Deuteronomy 28:15
• “If his means do not reach”: the means of the poor Leviticus 5:11Leviticus 14:21
• Obtaining joy or righteousness Isaiah 35:10Isaiah 59:9
• A harvest that reaches to the next Leviticus 26:5

Historical and cultural background

The laws of Leviticus provide smaller offerings for the poor: if his means do not reach to a lamb, he brings turtledoves or young pigeons, and if not even that, fine flour (Leviticus 5:7-11; 14:21).

How we translate it

“Overtake” in its forms (“overtake” 15 times, “overtook” 7, “overtake you” 3) and “reach” (11) when it is arriving somewhere. In Leviticus the Hebrew expression about the payer’s hand is kept as ‘his means do not reach’ (“if his means do not reach to two turtledoves”, 5:11); “can afford” in two places, and “obtain” in Isaiah 35:10.

How it is translated

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

• overtake ×15
• reach ×11
• overtook ×7
• overtake you ×3
• can afford ×2
• prospers ×2
• reaches ×2
• they will obtain ×2
• They move ×1
• have overtaken her ×1
• others ×4

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×12
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×1
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×1
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• Job×3
• Psalms×4
• Proverbs×1
• Isaiah×3
• Jeremiah×3
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×1
• Hosea×2
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 31:25

  Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent on the mountain, and Laban encamped with his brothers in the hill country of Gilead.

• Genesis 44:4

  They had gone out of the city and had not gone far when Joseph said to the one over his house, “Get up, pursue the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

• Genesis 44:6

  He overtook them and spoke to them these words.

• Genesis 47:9

  Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my life as an alien are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their life as aliens.”

• Exodus 14:9

  The Egyptians pursued them and overtook them camping by the sea, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

• Exodus 15:9

  The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

• Leviticus 5:11

  But if his means do not reach to two turtledoves or to two young pigeons, he shall bring, as his offering for what he has sinned, a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a sin offering; he shall not put oil on it, and he shall not put frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.

• Leviticus 14:21

  But if he is poor and his means do not reach, he shall take one lamb as a guilt offering for a wave offering to make expiation for him, and one tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil,

• Leviticus 14:22

  and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as his means reach; one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.

• Leviticus 14:30

  He shall offer one of the turtledoves or of the young pigeons, such as his means reach,

• Leviticus 14:31

  such as his means reach, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering; and the priest shall make expiation for the one being purified before YHWH.

• Leviticus 14:32

  This is the instruction for one who has a leprous sore, whose means do not reach for his purification.”

• Leviticus 25:26

  And if a man has no redeemer, but his hand reaches and finds enough for his redemption,

• Leviticus 25:47

  And if the hand of a resident alien or a temporary resident with you prospers, and your brother becomes poor beside him and sells himself to the resident alien, the temporary resident with you, or to a descendant of the clan of a resident alien,

• Leviticus 25:49

  or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or one of his close relatives from his clan may redeem him; or if his hand prospers, he may redeem himself.

• Leviticus 26:5

  Your threshing will reach to the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will reach to the sowing time; and you will eat your bread to the full and live securely in your land.

• Leviticus 27:8

  But if he is too poor for the valuation, he shall set him before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to what the hand of the one who vowed can afford, the priest shall value him.

• Numbers 6:21

  This is the instruction for the Nazirite who vows his offering to YHWH for his consecration, besides what his hand can afford; according to his vow that he vows, so he shall do, according to the instruction for his consecration.”

• Deuteronomy 19:6

  so that the avenger of blood does not pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, though he did not deserve a sentence of death, since he did not hate him previously.

• Deuteronomy 28:2

  And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim.

• Deuteronomy 28:15

  But it shall be, if you do not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, taking care to do all his commandments and his statutes that I am commanding you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.

• Deuteronomy 28:45

  And all these curses will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.

• Joshua 2:5

  When the gate was about to be shut at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.”

• 1 Samuel 14:26

  The people came into the forest, and look, the honey was flowing, but no one was putting his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath.

• 1 Samuel 30:8

  David inquired of YHWH, saying, “Shall I pursue after this band? Will I overtake them?” He said to him, “Pursue, for you will surely overtake and you will surely rescue.”

• 2 Samuel 15:14

  David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, “Get up, and let us flee, for there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Hurry to go, or he will quickly overtake us and bring the evil down on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”

• 2 Kings 25:5

  The force of the Chaldeans pursued after the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho; and all his force was scattered from around him.

• 1 Chronicles 21:12

  either three years of famine, or three months of being swept away before your adversaries, with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or three days of the sword of YHWH, that is, pestilence in the land, with the angel of YHWH destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.’ Now consider what word I should bring back to the one who sent me.”

• Job 24:2

  They move boundary markers; they seize a flock and pasture it.

• Job 27:20

  Terrors overtake him like waters; by night the whirlwind steals him away.

• Job 41:26

  The sword that reaches it does not hold, nor spear, missile or coat of mail.

• Psalms 7:5

  let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and trample my life to the ground, and make my honor dwell in the dust. Selah.

• Psalms 18:37

  I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until I had consumed them.

• Psalms 40:12

  For evils have surrounded me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I am not able to see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has abandoned me.

• Psalms 69:24

  Pour out upon them your indignation, and let the burning of your anger overtake them.

• Proverbs 2:19

  None who go in to her come back, nor do they reach the paths of life;

• Isaiah 35:10

  And the ransomed of YHWH will return and come to Zion with shouting for joy, and eternal gladness will be on their heads; joy and gladness they will obtain, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

• Isaiah 51:11

  And the ransomed of YHWH will return, and come to Zion with joyful shouting, and eternal gladness will be on their head; joy and gladness they will obtain; sorrow and sighing will flee.

• Isaiah 59:9

  Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and look, darkness; for brightness, but in gloom we walk.

• Jeremiah 39:5

  The force of the Chaldeans pursued after them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgments against him.

And 10 more times.