Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yaakov:
Looking at a concordance, this is a verb that occurs only six times in
Tanakh.

Exodus 21:13, 2 Kings 5:7, Isaiah 3:26, 19:8, Psalm 91:10, Proverbs 12:21

 ואשׁר לא צדה והאלהים אנה לידו ושׂמתי לך מקום אשׁר ינוס שׁמה׃

ויהי כקרא מלך־ישׂראל את־הספר ויקרע בגדיו ויאמר האלהים אני להמית ולהחיות
כי־זה שׁלח אלי לאסף אישׁ מצרעתו כי אך־דעו־נא וראו כי־מתאנה הוא לי׃

אנו ואבלו פתחיה ונקתה לארץ תשׁב׃

ואנו הדיגים ואבלו כל־משׁליכי ביאור חכה ופרשׂי מכמרת על־פני־מים אמללו׃

לא־תאנה אליך רעה ונגע לא־יקרב באהלך׃

לא־יאנה לצדיק כל־און ורשׁעים מלאו רע׃

From these I get the understanding that )NH אנה means "to experience, in
particular going through an unpleasant experience or occurrence that is not
entirely by chance, hence (hit) to make oneself an unpleasant experience,
i.e. to seek a pretext" (though on second thought, I'm not sure about the
seeking a pretext). There may be a better way of saying this.

Derivatives from the same root include:

)N אן woe Isaiah 29:2 Lamentations 2:5
)NY אני distressed
T)N תאן distress Isaiah 29:2 Lamentations 2:5
T)NH תאנה occasion for an unpleasant experience, not a chance occurrence
Judges 14:4

Synonyms are כעס, קרה K(S, QRH

Does this answer your question?

Karl W. Randolph.

On Feb 2, 2008 11:31 PM, Yaakov Stein <yaakov_s AT rad.com> 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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