אתון

Forms

אָתוֹן (ʾāṯôn) noun, feminine, plural אֲתוֹנוֹת^[1][4] With suffix אֲתֹנוֹ, אֲתֹנְךָ; plural אֲתֹנֹת, אֲתוֹנוֹת; feminine.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *ʔatān- (“she-ass”).^[4][6] The word is Akkadian atānu (“she-ass; also mare”), attested since Old Akkadian,^[7][8][9] Ugaritic ảtn (“she-ass”),^[10] Aramaic אֲתָנָא (ʾăṯānā),^[4][2] Classical Syriac ܐܲܬ݁ܵܢܵܐ (ʾattānā)^[11] and Arabic أَتَان (ʾatān).^[4][5] StarLing notes that only Akkadian also uses it of horses, and that its earliest record is an Old Akkadian incantation.^[6] The Hebrew ō, against the ā of Arabic and Aramaic, is the regular result of the Canaanite shift of stressed ā to ō.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Two archaic poems use it: the Blessing of Jacob speaks of Judah ʾōsərî lag-gep̄en ʿîrōh wə-laś-śōrēqâ bənî ʾăṯōnô, “binding his foal to the vine, his she-ass's colt to the choice vine” (Genesis 49:11), and the Song of Deborah addresses rōḵəḇê ʾăṯōnôṯ ṣəḥōrôṯ, “you who ride on white she-asses” (Judges 5:10).^[13][1]

Semantic evolution

The she-ass, as distinct from the male חֲמוֹר (ḥămôr), was counted as wealth: Abram's gifts from Pharaoh (Genesis 12:16), Jacob's present to Esau (Genesis 32:16) and Job's herds (Job 1:3, 42:12).^[2][5] It carried loads (Genesis 45:23) and was ridden by men and women, by the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:22, 24) and above all by Balaam, whose she-ass sees the angel and speaks to him (Numbers 22, fourteen times); Saul first meets Samuel while looking for the lost she-asses of Kish (1 Samuel 9–10).^[2][5] In Zechariah 9:9 the king comes on ʿayir ben-ʾăṯōnôṯ, “a colt, the foal of she-asses”, which HALOT explains from a Mari phrase as a purebred animal.^[2] Tawil compares the Akkadian pairing of she-asses with male donkeys and foals.^[14] The Septuagint has Ancient Greek ὄνος (ónos).^[1] Modern Hebrew אָתוֹן (atón) is still the female donkey.^[4]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – Genesis 49:11 and Judges 5:10.^[13][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 21 occurrences in Genesis to Kings, including Balaam's she-ass (Numbers 22) and the she-asses of Kish (1 Samuel 9).^[1][2]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek ὄνος (ónos).^[15][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – twelve occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, almost all in biblical manuscripts.^[16][17]

Meanings

Noun

1. a she-ass, female donkey, kept as property.^[2][5]
2. a she-ass used as a beast of burden or for riding.^[2]

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew אָתוֹן (atón)^[4]

Usage notes

The Aramaic of Daniel has a word of the same spelling, Aramaic אַתּוּן (ʾattûn, “furnace”), ten times in Daniel 3 for the fiery furnace; it is a loan from Akkadian utūnu (“kiln, furnace”), itself from Sumerian, and has no connection with the Hebrew she-ass.^[18][19][20]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. אָתוֹן
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 Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e 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. אָתוֹן
6. ^ a b Militarev, Alexander, et al., Semitic Etymology (database semet), The Tower of Babel (StarLing), starling.rinet.ru, p. s.v. ʔtn
7. ^ Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000), A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. s.v. atānu
8. ^ Gelb, Ignace J., et al., eds. (1956–2010), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 21 vols, Chicago: Oriental Institute, p. A/2 481
9. ^ von Soden, Wolfram (1965–1981), Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 86
10. ^ 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. ảtn I
11. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 112
12. ^ Blau, Joshua (2010), Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew: An Introduction, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, p. 136
13. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
14. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 40
15. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
16. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
17. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
18. ^ Noonan, Benjamin J. (2019), Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact, University Park: Eisenbrauns (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 14), p. 71
19. ^ Sokoloff, Michael (2009), A Syriac Lexicon, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns; Piscataway: Gorgias Press, p. 109
20. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. אַתּוּן