Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Yaakov,
Everything becomes clear and obvious if you only agree that U and I  
in a Hebrew word are personal pronouns or identity markers  
[essentially HU) and HI)], and that the radical consonants each  
denote existence or plurality. With this, )INAH of Exodus 21:13  
becomes HI), namely God, )ANAH, 'brought into existence, made to be,  
caused to happen, materialized, actualized' and by implication  
'moved, delivered', from the root AN-NA.
Hence the present-day T)UNAH = AT-HU)-ANAH, 'accident, happening'.
Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 3, 2008, at 2:31 AM, Yaakov Stein wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I was wondering if anyone can explain the derivation of the word ) 
> NH in
> piel form
> that appears in Exodus 21:13 and is usually translated something like
> "cause to happen".
>
> My concordance lists this word as unique to this meaning
> and defines it as "ZIMN".
> The KJV has "deliver into his hand" while the revised standard version
> has "came about by an act of God".
>
> It seems that all the translations derive the meaning from context.
>
> Of course there could be a connection to )NH meaning "please",
> i.e. God "asked" the person to be at that place.
>
> Alternatively, the word L)N meaning "where" and the
> word )NH as in ")NH W)NH" or ")NH HLK DODK"
> could give a clue. This could mean that God sent the
> person to the place where be would be killed.
>
> It is interesting that  )NH is also used for time, as in the  
> expression
> "(D )NH"
> used in Numbers 14:11. So perhaps the original meaning is "place  
> and/or
> time",
> in which case the meaning of the piel would be to cause someone to
> appear
> at a given place and time.
>
>
> Yaakov (J) Stein
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