Neck

Neck nek (tsawwar, tsawwa'r, tsawwaron, tsawwa'rah, Aramaic tsawwar (Dan 5:7, Dan 5:16, Dan 5:29), `oreph, miphreqeth (1Sa 4:18); nostos, "back" (Baruch 2:33); occasionally the words garon (Isa 3:16, Ezek 16:11), and gargeroth, plural of gargarah, literally, "throat" (Prov 1:9, Prov 3:3, Prov 3:12, Prov 6:21), are translated "neck"): The neck is compared with a tower for beauty (Song 4:4, Song 7:4) and is decorated with necklaces and chains (Prov 1:9, Prov 3:3, Prov 3:12, Prov 6:21, Hebrew gargeroth; Eze 16:11, Hebrew garon, "throat"; Dan 5:7, Dan 5:16, Dan 5:29, Hebrew tsawwar). It is also the part of the body where the yoke, emblem of labor and hardship, dependence and subjection, is borne (Deut 28:48, Jer 27:8, Jer 27:11, Jer 27:12, Jer 28:14, Acts 15:10). "To shake off the yoke," "to break the yoke," or "to take it off" is expressive of the regaining of independence and liberty, either by one's own endeavors or through help from outside (Gen 27:40, Isa 10:27, Jer 28:11, Jer 30:8). Certain animals which were not allowed as food (like the firstborn which were not redeemed) were to be killed by having their necks (`oreph) broken (Exod 13:13, Exod 34:20); the turtle-doves and young pigeons, which were sacrificed as sin offerings or as burnt offerings, had their heads wrung or pinched off from their necks (Le 5:8). In 1Sa 4:18 the Hebrew word miphreqeth signifies a fracture of the upper part of the spinal column caused by a fall.

It was a military custom of antiquity for the conqueror to place his foot upon the vanquished. This custom, frequently represented in sculpture on many an Egyptian temple wall, is referred to in Jos 10:24, Baruch 4:25 and probably in Ro 16:20 and Ps 110:1. Paul praises the devotion of Aquila and Priscilla, "who for my life laid down their own necks" (Ro 16:4).

See FOOTSTOOL.

To "fall on the neck" of a person is a very usual mode of salutation in the East (Gen 33:4, Gen 45:14, Gen 46:29; /RAPC Tob 11:9,13, Luke 15:20, Acts 20:37). In moments of great emotion such salutation is apt to end in weeping on each other's neck.

Readiness for work is expressed by "putting one's neck to the work" (Ne 3:5). Severe punishment and calamity are said to "reach to the neck" (Isa 8:8, Isa 30:28).

The Lord Jesus speaks of certain persons for whom it were better to have had a millstone put around the neck and to have been drowned in the sea. The meaning is that even the most disgraceful death is still preferable to a life of evil influence upon even the little ones of God's household (Matt 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2).

To "make the neck stiff," to "harden the neck" indicates obstinacy often mingled with rebellion (Exod 32:9, Exod 33:3, Exod 33:5, Exod 34:9, 2Chr 30:8, 2Chr 36:13, Neh 9:16, Neh 9:17, Neh 9:29, Ps 75:5 (the Revised Version margin "insolently with a haughty neck"); Prov 29:1, Jer 7:26). Compare sklerotracholes, "stiffnecked" (Ac 7:51). Similarly Isaiah (48:4) speaks of the neck of the obstinate sinner as resembling an iron sinew.

H. L. E. Luering