יצא

Forms

יָצָא (yāṣāʾ) verb^[4] The qal is used about 750 times and the hiphil about 280 times, and there is a rare hophal.^[5] Imperfect יֵצֵא, imperative צֵא, infinitive construct צֵאת, hiphil הוֹצִיא.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Semitic *wḍʾ (“to go out”), the original form of the root that HALOT gives after Brockelmann.^[5] The verb is Ugaritic yṣả,^[6][7] Phoenician yṣʾ (“to march out”),^[2][5] Akkadian waṣû, later aṣû,^[7][8][5] Sabaean wḍʾ and Ge'ez ወፅአ (waḍʾa).^[5][2] The Canaanite glosses of the Amarna letters have forms of it too.^[5][6] Aramaic has the root with ⟨ʿ⟩, as Aramaic יְעָא (yəʿāʾ) and Classical Syriac ܝܥܐ (yʿā), “to sprout, grow”, and with ⟨ṣ⟩ only in the causative.^[5][2][8] BDB, Gesenius–Buhl and Klein also quote Arabic وَضُؤَ (waḍuʾa, “to be clean, beautiful”), after Nöldeke.^{[2][9][8][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is used 1,065 times in the Bible, 13 of them in the poems Sáenz-Badillos counts as archaic.^[4][11] The Song of Deborah ends with those who love God kəṣēʾṯ haššemeš biḡḇurāṯô, “like the sun when it comes out in its strength” (Judges 5:31), a phrase HALOT compares with Akkadian ṣīt šamši and Ugaritic ṣʾt špš, “sunrise”.^[5][4] In the oracles of Balaam the hiphil names the Exodus: ʾēl môṣîʾām mimmiṣrāyim, “God, who brings them out of Egypt” (Numbers 23:22).^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the qal HALOT gives “to come out” of the rising sun and stars and of a child at birth (Genesis 25:26), “to go out” of a place, “to step forward”, and “to set out, march away”, which includes going out to war.^[5] Special uses are “to come from” a forefather (Genesis 10:14), the going out of the soul at death (Genesis 35:18) or in fright (Song of Songs 5:6), escaping and coming to an end.^[5] The hiphil is “to lead out, bring out”, above all in the formula of God who brought Israel out of Egypt, and “to produce”, of the earth bringing forth plants (Genesis 1:12) or a smith making a tool (Isaiah 54:16); “to bring out an evil report” is to slander (Numbers 13:32).^[5] The hophal is “to be led out”, to execution or into exile.^[5]

The Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek ἐξέρχομαι (exérkhomai) and the hiphil with ἐξάγω (exágō).^[4] It is used almost 900 times in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[12] Modern Hebrew יצא (yatsá) is the usual Modern Hebrew verb for “to go out”.^[7]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – kəṣēʾṯ haššemeš in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:31) and the hiphil môṣîʾām in the oracles of Balaam (Numbers 23:22).^[11][4]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 586 of the biblical uses are in Genesis to Kings.^[4]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek ἐξέρχομαι (exérkhomai).^[13][4]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – about 900 uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[14][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to come out, come forth: of the sun rising, of a child being born.^[5]
2. qal to go out, to leave a place.^[5][2]
3. qal to set out, to march out (to war).^[5]
4. qal to be descended from someone.^[5]
5. qal to escape; to come to an end.^[5]
6. hiphil to lead out, bring out; to produce, bring forth.^[5][2]
7. hophal to be led out (to execution, into exile).^[5]

Word family

• מוֹצָא (môṣāʾ)
• תּוֹצָאוֹת (tôṣāʾôṯ)
• צֶאֱצָאִים (ṣeʾĕṣāʾîm)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew יצא (yatsá)^[7]

Usage notes

The Biblical Aramaic šêṣîʾ, “he finished”, in Ezra 6:15 is often connected with the Akkadian causative of the same verb, which Tawil, after Kaufman, doubts, since the Akkadian never means “to finish”.^[4][15][5] The two forms in 2 Samuel 18:22 that MACULA gives to the verb “to find” are read by HALOT as the hophal of this verb, “to be paid”.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (2021), BHSA: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Amstelodamensis, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2021, github.com/ETCBC/bhsa
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. יָצָא
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 h i j Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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. יצא
6. ^ a b 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. y-ṣ-ʔ
7. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. יצא
9. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. יצא
10. ^ Lane, Edward William (1863–1893), An Arabic-English Lexicon, 8 parts, London: Williams and Norgate, p. 2945
11. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
14. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
15. ^ Tawil, Hayim ben Yosef (2009), An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents, Jersey City: Ktav, p. 445