נתן

Forms

נָתַן (nāṯan) verb^[1] Imperfect יִתֵּן with the n assimilated, imperative תֵּן, infinitive construct usually תֵּת (לָתֵת), passive participle נָתוּן.^[3] The qal makes up about 1,919 of the 2,008 occurrences, the niphal 83, and there is a passive of the qal.^[3][1]

Etymology

The verb “to give” is a Northwest Semitic word with a cognate in Akkadian.^[4][3] Ugaritic and Phoenician have it as Ugaritic ytn and Phoenician ytn, with ⟨y⟩ for ⟨n⟩,^[5][4] and Kogan holds, against Militarev, that it can hardly be separated from Akkadian nadānu (“to give”).^[4][6] Aramaic kept the perfect only in its oldest inscriptions and replaced it elsewhere by יהב (yəhaḇ), while the imperfect lived on, as in Aramaic נְתַן (nəṯan) in Ezra 4:13 and in the Syriac imperfect /nettel/, from /netten le/.^[3][1] HALOT notes that the verb is missing in Arabic and occurs in Old South Arabian only in names;^[3] Wiktionary suggests a link with Arabic نَتَنَ (natana, “to stink”), with a narrowing of meaning.^[7] Leslau takes the rare Ge'ez verb for “give” to be a transcription of the Hebrew.^[8] Kogan calls the further etymology unknown,^[9] and Nöldeke thought the root was once of two consonants, with ⟨n⟩ added to it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated records are the 6th-century letters from Lachish and Arad,^[10] where it occurs 13 times, as ntn, wntn and ntnw.^[11][12] Davies also lists it on two ostraca of unknown provenance that he dates to the second half of the 7th century.^[13][14] In the Bible it is found in the archaic poems: in the Song of Deborah ḥālāḇ nāṯānâ, “she gave milk” (Judges 5:25), and in the Blessing of Jacob Asher yittēn maʿăḏannê-meleḵ, “will yield royal dainties” (Genesis 49:20).^[15][1]

Semantic evolution

HALOT sorts the biblical uses of the qal into more than a dozen senses.^[3] The first is to give something to someone, as a present or a payment, which extends to handing over, selling, paying and offering to God.^[3][16] nāṯan bəyaḏ, “to give into the hand of”, is to deliver someone to an enemy, a phrase of the war narratives.^[3] With an infinitive it means to allow, as in “I did not let you touch her” (Genesis 20:6).^[3] A second large group of uses is to set, put or lay something somewhere, and with two objects to make someone into something: “I have made you the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5).^[3][16] Idioms include nāṯan qôl, “to raise the voice”, and nāṯan lēḇ, “to set the heart” on something, in Qoheleth.^[3]

The Septuagint renders it by Ancient Greek δίδωμι (dídōmi).^[1] The Dead Sea Scrolls use it about 1,340 times.^[17] The verb lives on in Mishnaic Hebrew and in Modern Hebrew נָתַן (natán), with the infinitive לָתֵת.^[3][7] Names such as נָתָן, a short form of יְהוֹנָתָן (yəhônāṯān) “the LORD has given”, give English Nathan and Jonathan.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – 13 occurrences in the Lachish and Arad ostraca.^[10][11]
• Archaic Hebrew poetry – the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:25) and the Blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49:20).^[15][1]
• Classical Biblical Hebrew – 949 of its 2,008 occurrences are in the prose of Genesis to Kings.^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it by Ancient Greek δίδωμι (dídōmi).^[20][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – about 1,340 occurrences in the Dead Sea Scrolls.^[21][17]

Meanings

Verb

1. qal: to give, to present; to pay; to deliver.^[3][16]
2. qal: to give up, hand over; to sell;^[7] nāṯan bəyaḏ to deliver into someone's power.^[3]
3. qal: to offer to God; to dedicate.^[3]
4. qal with an infinitive: to allow, let.^[3]
5. qal: to set, put, place, lay.^[3][16]
6. qal with two objects: to make someone into something.^[3][16]
7. niphal: to be given; to be granted, be allowed.^[3]

Word family

• מַתָּן (mattān)
• מַתָּנָה (mattānâ)
• אֶתְנַן (ʾeṯnan)
• נָתִין (nāṯîn)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew נָתַן (natán)^[7]

Usage notes

The Aramaic chapters of Ezra and Daniel use the imperfect and infinitive of the cognate נְתַן seven times.^[1][22] In Numbers 3:9 the Levites are nəṯûnim nəṯûnim, “wholly given” to Aaron, a passive participle MACULA counts separately.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 s t u 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. נתן
4. ^ a b c Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 233
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. y-t-n
6. ^ von Soden, Wolfram (1965–1981), Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 701
7. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Leslau, Wolf (1987), Comparative Dictionary of Geʿez (Classical Ethiopic), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, p. 407
9. ^ Kogan, Leonid (2015), Genealogical Classification of Semitic: The Lexical Isoglosses, Berlin: De Gruyter, p. 263
10. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 77
11. ^ a b Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 2.001
12. ^ Davies, Graham I. (1991), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1.004
13. ^ Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 99.007
14. ^ Davies, Graham I. (2004), Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions: Corpus and Concordance, vol. 2, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 99.008
15. ^ a b Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 69
16. ^ 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. נָתַן
17. ^ 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
18. ^ 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. נָתָן
19. ^ 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. ntn
20. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
21. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143
22. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. נתן