Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

 Exodus 34: 22 may embody an archaic meaning of $NH.  As a noun, $NH is 
often viewed as being derived from the verb of the same unpointed spelling, 
$NH, which means “to change”.  Many analysts [including BDB] have seen the 
noun as originally having meant “changing [seasons]”, which could 
alternatively be rendered as:  “changes-of-seasons”, or 
“changes[-of-seasons]”.  In 
Canaan, the seasons changed at the approximate time of the equinoxes:  at 
about the time of the fall equinox and the spring equinox.   In this 
connection, 
Charles J. Voss makes the following comment about TQWPT H-$NH at the end of 
Exodus 34: 22:
  
“The Tanakh uses the words, “turn of the year.”  In English “year’s end” 
and “turn of the year” come from two Hebrew words;  “shaneh” means “the 
course (or the changing) of the season” and “tequwphah” means “after the 
courses of a year.”  Taken together they mean, “the turn of the year.” The 
seasons change at the equinoxes.  An equinox is not visible per se, but it 
can 
be observed after it has passed.  ‘The largest Full Moon of the year [The 
Harvest Moon] is the first Full Moon after the autumn equinox. The smallest 
Full Moon of the year is the first Full Moon after the spring equinox.’”  
_http://www.uhcg.org/Cal-Fl-Moon/cal-article.html_ 
(http://www.uhcg.org/Cal-Fl-Moon/cal-article.html) 
 
If that original meaning is present here, and TQWPT H-$NH means “turning of 
the changes-of-seasons”, referencing the approximate times of the fall and 
spring equinoxes, when the seasons “change” in Canaan, then Exodus 34: 22 
could be translated as follows:
 
“And thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the 
wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering [at a] turning of the 
changes-of-seasons”.
 
One of the two cases of a “turning of the changes-of-seasons” occurs at 
the fall equinox [with the other occurring at the spring equinox;  Moses has 
already, at Exodus 34: 18, referred to the Feast of Unleavened 
Bread/Passover, which occurs at about the spring equinox, so the fall equinox 
is what is 
implied here at the end of Exodus 34: 22].  The fall equinox is the 
approximate time when the Feast of Ingathering was held.
 
Now we can see why $NH, though singular in form, is usually plural in 
meaning, because it is plural in concept:  “changes [plural] of seasons”.
 
True, that original, archaic meaning of “changes-of-seasons” soon was 
largely displaced by the later meaning of $NH as a noun:  “year”, meaning a 
discrete period of 12 months.  The reason for that change was that the 
Hebrews 
came in contact with foreigners who had a word that meant “year”, and that 
referred to a discrete period of 12 months, which was the unit of time that 
foreigners routinely referenced.  The only Hebrew word that could be adopted 
for such a concept was $NH.  So in most of the Bible $NH as a noun means “
year”, that is, a discrete 12-month period.  But that was a force-fit.  Even 
today, we can see that a Hebrew word whose literal meaning is “change” does 
not fit well the concept of a “year”, being a discrete 12-month period, 
when by definition one ends up back in the same season where one started.  
That
’s not “change”.
 
In my opinion, the original, archaic meaning of $NH as a noun was “change”
, implying “changes-of-seasons”.  That archaic meaning of $NH shows up in 
some of the oldest parts of the Bible and at Exodus 34: 22:  “
changes-of-seasons”, referring in that case to the Feast of Ingathering being 
at the 
approximate time of the fall equinox, which is one of the two times when the 
seasons “change”/$NH in Canaan.
 
Prior to the post-exilic Ezekiel 40: 1, the Bible never mentions a “New Year
”, and even in the post-exilic books there is never a mention in the Bible 
of the Hebrews celebrating a “New Year”.  That’s because the ancient Hebrew 
outlook focused on “changes-of-season”, at approximately the times of the 
two equinoxes, rather than focusing on the concept of a discrete 12-month 
period, or “year”.  The Hebrew language originally didn’t even have a word 
for “year”!  Rather, $NH originally meant “changes-of-seasons”, referring to 
the fall and spring when Canaan’s two seasons “changed”.  Both the concept 
of a “year” as 12-13 months, and the concept of a “New Year”, were 
initially foreign concepts to the Hebrews.  The ancient Canaanite calendars 
had 
focused on the two equinoxes, and the Hebrews’ original focus was even more 
basic than that, focusing on the “changes” of the agricultural seasons in the 
fall and spring.  The Hebrew language reflects the way the Hebrews 
originally thought:  they thought in terms of “changes-of-seasons”, which is 
what 
$NH as a noun originally meant, based on $NH as a verb meaning “to change”.  
When the Hebrews soon learned that most of the rest of the world was 
constantly talking about distinct 12-month periods, or “years”, the Hebrews 
had 
to scramble to adopt one of their words to accommodate that ubiquitous 
foreign concept.  Lacking any better alternative, the Hebrews pressed $NH 
into 
service, so that the primary meaning of $NH soon came to be “year”, that is, 
a 
distinct 12-month period.  Yet a verb that means “change” does not fit the 
concept of a distinct 12-month year.  Rather, the oldest Hebrew thinking 
was in terms of “changes-of-seasons”, in the fall and spring, when Canaan’s 
two seasons “changed”.  The original, archaic meaning of $NH is “
changes[-of-seasons]”.  The first Hebrews had no concept of, and no word for, 
either “
year” or “New Year”!  Nor would Moses refer to “the year’s end”.  Rather, 
Exodus 34: 22 is referring to the “turning”/TQWPT of “the changes-of 
seasons”/H-$NH, a phrase that refers to the approximate time period of either 
or 
both of the equinoxes [here the fall equinox], being when the seasons “
changed” in Canaan.  The phrase TQWPT H-$NH does not refer to either “year” 
or “
the year’s end”. 
 
In the oldest parts of the Bible, $NH does not necessarily mean “year”.  
Rather, since its ultra-literal meaning is “change”, its intended meaning 
may be “changes-of-seasons”, referencing the approximate times of the fall 
and spring equinoxes.  That linguistic analysis of the Hebrew word $NH 
changes 
everything.
 
“…‘years’ they are beyond reason.  Yet our word ‘year’ is only a 
translation.  The Hebrew is shanah, whose root meaning is ‘change’.  …Shanah 
could 
apply to…the change from winter rains to summer drought, and summer drought 
to winter rains.”  William Todd, “New Light on Genesis:  The Narrative 
Explained Against Its Geographical, Historical and Social Background” (1978), 
p. 50. 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois