נטה

Forms

נָטָה (nāṭâ) verb^[1] Qal (about 130 times): imperfect יִטֶּה, short וַיֵּט, וַיֶּט־, imperative נְטֵה, infinitive נְטוֹת, passive participle נָטוּי, feminine נְטוּיָה.^[3][4] Niphal יִנָּטֶה; hiphil (75 times) הִטָּה, imperfect יַטֶּה, וַיַּט; hophal participle מֻטֶּה.^[3]

Etymology

It is a Central Semitic verb, Huehnergard's root ⟨nṭy⟩ “to stretch out, extend, incline”.^[5] It is found in later Hebrew and Jewish Aramaic, and in Arabic نَطَا (naṭā, “to stretch out”).^[3][4][6] HALOT adds a Ge'ez form with a question mark and, also doubtfully, Akkadian naṭû (“to strike”);^[3][7] Klein and Gesenius–Buhl instead give the Akkadian verb the sense “to be fitting”.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Five of the 214 occurrences are in the archaic poems.^[1][8] The Song of the Sea says to God nāṭîṯā yəmînəḵā, “you stretched out your right hand”, and the earth swallowed the Egyptians (Exodus 15:12); in the Blessing of Jacob, Issachar wayyēṭ šiḵmô lisbōl, “bowed his shoulder to bear” (Genesis 49:15); and in the Oracles of Balaam the tents of Jacob spread out kinḥālîm nittāyû, “like valleys stretched out” (Numbers 24:6).^[3][1][9]

Semantic evolution

HALOT orders the qal senses from the concrete outward: to reach out the hand, a staff or a sword; to spread out a tent, and God stretching out the heavens like a tent (Isaiah 40:22); to bow down; and intransitive, to lengthen (of a shadow), turn aside, incline.^[3] Bəyāḏ ḥăzāqâ ûḇizrôaʿ nəṭûyâ, “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm”, is the formula for God's acts at the Exodus (Exodus 6:6, Deuteronomy 5:15).^[3] The hiphil bends the ear or the heart, and in the laws it means to pervert justice: lōʾ ṯaṭṭê mišpāṭ (Deuteronomy 16:19).^[3][4] HALOT compares the hiphil with “heart” in an ostracon from Arad (Arad 40:4).^[3] The Septuagint renders it mainly by Ancient Greek ἐκτείνω (ekteínō) and κλίνω (klínō), and the passive participle by ὑψηλός (hupsēlós).^[1]

From the root come מַטֶּה (maṭṭê, “staff, tribe”) and מִטָּה “bed, couch”.^[3][4] Huehnergard records the possibility that Late Latin matta, the source of English mat, came from a Punic word of this root akin to miṭṭâ.^[5]

Timeline

• Archaic Hebrew poetry – nāṭîṯā yəmînəḵā (Exodus 15:12); wayyēṭ šiḵmô (Genesis 49:15).^[8][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – zərôaʿ nəṭûyâ “an outstretched arm” of the Exodus (Exodus 6:6).^[3]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it as Ancient Greek ἐκτείνω (ekteínō) and κλίνω (klínō).^[10][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – 209 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 160 in biblical scrolls.^[11][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal to stretch out the hand, a staff, a sword.^[3][4]
2. qal to spread out, pitch a tent; of God, to stretch out the heavens.^[3][4]
3. qal to bow, bend down; intransitive, to lengthen, decline (of a shadow, the day).^[3]
4. qal to turn aside; to incline towards, follow.^[3][4]
5. hiphil to stretch out, spread out; to incline the ear or the heart.^[3][4]
6. hiphil to pervert justice; to turn someone aside, mislead.^[3]

Word family

• מַטֶּה (maṭṭê)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew נטה (natá)^[13]

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. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
3. ^ 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. נטה
4. ^ 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. נָטָה
5. ^ a b Huehnergard, John (2011), "Proto-Semitic Language and Culture" and "Semitic Roots", in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, p. s.v. nṭy
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. נטה
7. ^ a b Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. נטה
8. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
9. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69–70
10. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
11. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
12. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org