The Hebrew adjective dakkah (related to the verb dakah) means crushed, pulverized, or utterly broken down. In its most significant theological use, it describes the broken and contrite spirit that God regards with compassion. This is not physical crushing but spiritual — the humbling of pride and self-sufficiency before God.
Isaiah 57:15 declares that God dwells with the contrite and lowly in spirit — the dakkah. This is one of the most remarkable theological declarations in the Old Testament: the high and exalted God inhabits the crushed heart. The Psalms amplify this: Psalm 34:18 promises God is near the brokenhearted. The dakkah spirit is not despair but surrender — the prerequisite for divine encounter and healing.