The Hebrew verb naqab carries several related meanings: to pierce, to bore (a hole), to blaspheme/curse, or to name/designate explicitly. The connection is the idea of 'cutting through' — whether through material, through social prohibitions (blasphemy), or through identifying something precisely by name.
The theological range of naqab is extraordinary. At one extreme, it is used for physical piercing — 2 Kings 18:21 describes a reed that will 'pierce (naqab) the hand.' At the other extreme, it is the word for blasphemy (Leviticus 24:11, 16): the son of an Israelite woman 'blasphemed the Name.' The connection is profound: to blaspheme is to violate the sacred name, to pierce through the boundary of holiness. The same word for 'bore a hole in the chest' (2 Kings 12:9) means 'strike through the name of God.' This linguistic link reveals that in the Hebrew worldview, words have physical force — honoring or blaspheming God's name is not merely verbal but has moral and even cosmic weight.