Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT globalfreeway.com.au>]

Tony,

The essence of NA`AR is 'inexperienced'. Thus, it can denote someone who is 
young in age
because they have not experienced much of life. It can also be used as a 
formal word for
'trainee' or 'apprentice' (as in the beginning of 1 Sam) - someone who is in 
the process
of gaining experience in a certain vocation, and who is therefore an 
underling of a
manager (eg, the ne`arim and ne`arot and Ruth). It can be the informal word 
for
'inexperienced', as in the case of Solomon and Jeremiah. Thus, the semantic 
range is
'young in experience'. Various words for translation might be:

young
youth
lad
girl
trainee
apprentice
acolyte
employee
junior
inexperienced



Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)
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