נְקֵא

# Neqe (נְקֵא): Pure The Hebrew word *neqe* appears only once in the biblical text, making it an extremely rare term in the Hebrew Bible. Its definition—"pure"—places it within the semantic field of cleanliness and absence of contamination, though the single occurrence severely limits what can be determined about its precise usage or nuance. Because *neqe* occurs only once, scholars cannot establish whether it functioned as a common synonym for other purity-related terms or occupied a specialized niche. The rarity of the word may suggest either that it was an archaic or regional variant of more frequently used terms, or that it held specific significance in a particular context. Without multiple occurrences showing varied applications, the full range of its meaning—whether it referred to ritual purity, moral cleanness, physical cleanliness, or some combination—remains indeterminate based solely on the lexical data. For biblical interpreters, the uniqueness of *neqe* presents a challenge: a single occurrence provides insufficient evidence for confident analysis of meaning beyond its basic definition. Its presence in the biblical text indicates that Hebrew possessed multiple vocabulary options for expressing the concept of purity, though the reasons for choosing this particular word in its sole instance cannot be determined from frequency and distribution data alone.