אהב

Forms

אָהֵב (ʾāhēḇ) verb^[4][1] Qal perfect אָהֵב or אָהַב, imperfect יֶאֱהַב, first person אֹהַב (Malachi 1:2) and אֵהָב (Proverbs 8:17), infinitive אֱהֹב and אַהֲבָה, participle אֹהֵב, passive participle אָהוּב.^[2][1] Niphal participle נֶאֱהָבִים (2 Samuel 1:23); piel participle מְאַהֲבִים “lovers”; a hiphil in Ben Sira.^[2]

Etymology

The verb is shared with Ugaritic, Ugaritic ảhb (“to love”), which also has the noun ảhbt (“love”).^[5][6][7] HALOT also cites Punic and Egyptian Aramaic,^[2] but Kogan finds no secure Aramaic example: the one Egyptian Aramaic reading has been abandoned, and Jewish Aramaic אַהֲבָה (ʾahăḇā, “love”) is borrowed from Hebrew.^[6]

Its origin is uncertain.^[6] Since ʾ and h hardly ever occur together in a Semitic verbal root, Kogan suspects that one of them is secondary, and considers an extension of a root ʾb “to wish”, seen in אָבָה (ʾāḇâ, “to be willing”) and יָאַב (yāʾaḇ, “to long for”).^[6] Others have compared Arabic هبّ (habba, “to breathe heavily, be stirred”), a comparison HALOT, Klein and Gesenius–Buhl mention with reserve.^[2][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb occurs 207 times in the Hebrew Bible, once in the archaic poetry, at the close of the Song of Deborah:^[10][4] kēn yōʾḇəḏû ḵāl-ʾôyəḇeḵā YHWH wəʾōhăḇāyw kəṣēʾṯ haššemeš biḡḇurāṯô, “so may all your enemies perish, YHWH, and may those who love him be like the sun rising in its strength” (Judges 5:31).^[4] One of the silver amulets from the Hinnom Valley in Jerusalem, of the 7th century BC, has a formula that Davies restores as l'ʾh[by], “to those who love (him)”.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

HALOT sorts the objects of love: persons, as a father his son (Genesis 22:2), a husband his wife, a slave his master (Exodus 21:5) and Michal David (1 Samuel 18:20); things, such as justice, bribes (Isaiah 1:23) or what is good (Amos 5:15); and God.^[2] Love for God is asked in the Decalogue (Exodus 20:6, Deuteronomy 5:10), and God loves Israel (Hosea 11:1), the forefathers and the stranger (Deuteronomy 10:18).^[2] With lə and an infinitive it means to like doing something (Isaiah 56:10).^[2] The participle ʾōhēḇ is a friend, and Abraham is God's friend in Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7.^[2] The piel participle, “lovers”, is used of a woman's lovers in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and Lamentations, and once of a man's (Zechariah 13:6).^[2]

The Septuagint renders it nearly always with Ancient Greek ἀγαπάω (agapáō).^[4] The Dead Sea Scrolls use the root 279 times,^[13] and the verb lives on as Modern Hebrew אהב (aháv).^[7]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – wəʾōhăḇāyw, “those who love him”, in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:31).^[10][4]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 60 occurrences from Genesis to Kings, beginning in the canon with Abraham's love for Isaac (Genesis 22:2).^[4][2]
• 7th century BC – l'ʾh[by], restored on a silver amulet from the Hinnom Valley.^[11][12]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek ἀγαπάω (agapáō).^[14][4]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 279 occurrences of the root in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[15][13]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to love a person: a child, a wife or husband, a master, a friend.^[2][1]
2. qal to like, to love a thing: justice, gifts, good days.^[2]
3. qal to love God, his name, his commandments; of God, to love Israel, the righteous, the stranger.^[2]
4. qal with lə and an infinitive: to like doing something.^[2]
5. qal participle: a friend.^[2]
6. niphal participle: lovable.^[2]
7. piel participle: a lover.^[2]

Word family

• אַהֲבָה (ʾahăḇâ)

Usage notes

The rare noun ʾahaḇ is found only in the plural, as “love gifts” paid to foreign allies in Hosea 8:9 and in the phrase ʾayyeleṯ ʾăhāḇîm, “a lovely doe”, of a wife in Proverbs 5:19;^[16][17] Klein takes it for a back-formation from אַהֲבָה (ʾahăḇâ).^[18] ʾōhaḇ occurs in the plural ʾŏhāḇîm, “love-making”, in Proverbs 7:18,^[19] and BDB adds Hosea 9:10, where it would be the object of love, the idol.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אָהֵב
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אהב
3. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
4. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
5. ^ del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, 3rd ed., transl. W. G. E. Watson, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. /ʔ-h-b/
6. ^ a b c d Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 280
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אהב
9. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. אהב
10. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
11. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 77
12. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 4.301.5
13. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
16. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אַהַב
17. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אַהַב
18. ^ Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. אַהַב
19. ^ Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. אֹהַב
20. ^ Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. אֹהַב