Innocent
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נָקִי (naqi) is a Hebrew adjective for someone innocent, guiltless, clean, free from liability, or exempt in a stated matter. Genesis 44:10 says Joseph's other brothers will be free from blame if the cup is found with one person, and Exodus 21:28 declares the owner of an ox free from liability under the specified circumstance.
Reader summary
Full entry for נָקִי (H5355) · Open the biblical lexicon
נָקִי (naqi) is a Hebrew adjective for someone innocent, guiltless, clean, free from liability, or exempt in a stated matter. Genesis 44:10 says Joseph's other brothers will be free from blame if the cup is found with one person, and Exodus 21:28 declares the owner of an ox free from liability under the specified circumstance.
The BSB source-word alignment has 43 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include innocent (10), the innocent (7), of the innocent (3), free (2), released (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 24:41. Its strongest book concentrations include Deuteronomy (6), Jeremiah (6), Job (6), Psalms (5).
נָקִי (naqi) is a Hebrew adjective for someone innocent, guiltless, clean, free from liability, or exempt in a stated matter. Genesis 44:10 says Joseph's other brothers will be free from blame if the cup is found with one person, and Exodus 21:28 declares the owner of an ox free from liability under the specified circumstance. Such uses concern a charge or obligation; they do not necessarily declare a person morally flawless in every respect.
The phrase innocent blood gives naqi grave public force. Exodus 23:7 forbids killing the innocent and righteous. Deuteronomy 19:10 orders refuge provisions so innocent blood is not shed in the land. First Samuel 19:5 warns Saul against sinning by shedding David's innocent blood, and 2 Kings 21:16 condemns Manasseh for filling Jerusalem with innocent blood. The category places responsibility on rulers, courts, witnesses, and communities to protect people from wrongful death.
Psalm 24:4 describes the one who may ascend the Lord's hill as clean of hands and pure of heart; here naqi qualifies hands as part of a fuller portrait of faithful integrity. Psalm 15:5 condemns taking a bribe against the innocent. Job 4:7 asks where the innocent have perished, a claim spoken by Eliphaz that the book as a whole does not allow readers to turn into a simple rule about all suffering. Jonah 1:14 records sailors pleading not to be charged with innocent blood before they cast Jonah into the sea. Each setting requires moral and literary attention, not a quick transfer of innocence language to the reader's preferred party.
Naqi marks freedom from a charge, liability, punishment, or bloodguilt and can qualify hands as clean. Its legal and ethical force is often specific rather than a claim of universal sinlessness.
The brothers not found with the cup are declared free from blame under the proposed judgment.
The owner of an ox is free from liability when an unpredictable goring occurs under the stated conditions.
Israel's judges must keep far from a false charge and must not kill the innocent and righteous.
Cities of refuge help prevent innocent blood from being shed through unrestrained vengeance.
Jonathan confronts Saul with the guilt of seeking David's innocent blood despite David's service to Israel.
Manasseh's shedding of abundant innocent blood becomes part of the indictment against his reign.
Clean hands stand beside a pure heart, truthful devotion, and honest oaths in the portrait of the worshiper.
Eliphaz appeals to the fate of the innocent, but his speech must be evaluated within the book's sustained challenge to simplistic retribution.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Denotes legal or moral innocence through freedom from guilt; often implies vindication before God or human judgment
Denotes legal or moral innocence through freedom from guilt; often implies vindication before God or human judgment
innocent BDB: clean Usage: blameless, clean, clear, exempted, free, guiltless, innocent, quit.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 43 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Naqi equips a congregation to care about truthful charges, fair liability, clean conduct, and the protection of innocent life. The word's legal precision resists two opposite errors. It does not permit institutions to treat suspicion as guilt, and it does not let a person turn innocence in one dispute into a claim of complete moral purity. The innocent-blood texts address public systems as well as individual motives: judges, rulers, witnesses, and communities can become responsible for wrongful death.
Psalm 24 joins clean hands to a pure heart and truthful worship, refusing a split between public conduct and private devotion. Job cautions preachers not to assume suffering proves guilt. These texts can support advocacy for due process and protection of vulnerable people while requiring humble, evidence-based judgment about particular cases.
Ps.24.4
Naqi is an adjective. It often describes innocence or freedom relative to a charge or obligation. Related H5352 supplies verbal acquittal or clearing language and must remain lexically distinct.
The New Testament repeatedly portrays Jesus as innocent amid false accusation and unjust execution, and it calls communities to impartial judgment and protection from murder. Those are canonical parallels; they do not make every Greek innocence term an occurrence of H5355 or make naqi a complete doctrine of justification.
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