safak · clap, strike

What it means

safak (סָפַק) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “clap, strike”.

Clap the hands: strike one hand against the other as a sign of anger, mockery or grief; also strike.

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 smack the palms together in anger, scorn or grief.
2. To roll about and soil oneself, like one wallowing in his own vomit.
3. To reach in quantity for everyone, to be enough.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• I struck ×1
• It claps ×1
• They clap ×1
• enough ×1
• he claps his hands ×1
• he strikes them ×1
• he struck ×1
• strike ×1
• they clasp hands ×1
• will splash ×1

Where it appears

• Numbers×1
• 1 Kings×1
• Job×3
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×2
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×1

• Numbers 24:10

  And Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “To curse my enemies I called you, and look, you have done nothing but bless them these three times!

• 1 Kings 20:10

  Ben-hadad sent to him and said, “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add, if the dust of Samaria is enough for handfuls for all the people who follow me.”

• Job 27:23

  It claps its palms at him, and hisses at him from its place.

• Job 34:26

  As wicked men he strikes them in a place where people see,

• Job 34:37

  For he adds to his sin transgression; among us he claps his hands, and multiplies his sayings against El.”

• Isaiah 2:6

  For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full from the east, and have soothsayers like the Philistines, and with the children of foreigners they clasp hands.

• Jeremiah 31:19

  For after I turned away, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck on my thigh; I was ashamed, and also humiliated, for I bore the reproach of my youth.’

• Jeremiah 48:26

  Make him drunk, for against YHWH he has made himself great; and Moab will splash in his vomit, and he too will become a laughingstock.

• Lamentations 2:15

  They clap their hands at you, all who pass by on the road; they hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that they called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth’?”

• Ezekiel 21:12

  Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people; it is against all the chiefs of Israel. Thrown to the sword they are with my people; therefore strike your thigh.