תו

Forms

תָּו (tāw) noun, masculine^[1][2] With suffix תָּוִי “my mark” (Job 31:35); with the article הַתָּו (Ezekiel 9:6).^[3][2]

Etymology

It is an old Semitic noun for a mark: Huehnergard reconstructs it for Central Semitic as *taww- (“mark, sign”), the source, through Phoenician, of the name of the last letter of the alphabet.^[4] HALOT explains that the last letter of the Old Canaanite alphabet had the shape of a cross, a simple mark used by herdsmen, and compares Arabic تَوّ (taww, “single, separate item”).^[3] Gesenius–Buhl and Klein compare instead تِوَاء (tiwāʾ, “brand”), the mark burned on livestock.^[5][6] The verb תָּוָה (tāwâ, “to make a mark”) is a denominative from the noun.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It occurs three times.^[1] In Ezekiel's vision a man clothed in linen is told wəhiṯwîṯā tāw ʿal-miṣḥôṯ hāʾănāšîm, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men” who groan over the city's abominations, and those who have the mark are spared (Ezekiel 9:4, 9:6).^[1][3] HALOT takes it as a sign of protection given to those who professed their faith in the LORD.^[3] In Job 31:35 Job ends his defence with hen-tāwî, “here is my mark”, his signature on the case.^[1][3][2]

Semantic evolution

HALOT, after Keel, describes the mark as a sign of ownership or belonging, used in cult and in daily life.^[3] For Job 31:35 Fohrer compared the nail impressions that signed Babylonian clay tablets, and Koehler thought of a house mark;^[1] Driver's conjecture of a noun for “desire”, which would fit the Vulgate's desiderium meum, is rejected by HALOT.^[3] The Septuagint renders the mark of Ezekiel 9:4 by Ancient Greek σημεῖον (sēmeîon).^[1] The Damascus Document quotes Ezekiel's mark, and the Dead Sea Scrolls have the word in a few fragments.^[3][8] In Rabbinic Hebrew tāw is both a mark and the name of the last letter, so called after its old shape.^[9][3] Today Modern Hebrew תו (tav) is also a musical note.^[6][10]

Timeline

• Prophetic books – the mark on the foreheads in Ezekiel 9:4 and 9:6.^[1][3]
• Poetry – hen-tāwî “here is my mark” (Job 31:35).^[1]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint renders it Ancient Greek σημεῖον (sēmeîon).^[11][1]
• 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – the Damascus Document quotes Ezekiel's mark.^[12][3]
• Rabbinic Hebrew – the name of the letter taw.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a mark, a sign, especially one put on the forehead as a protection (Ezekiel 9:4, 9:6).^[3][2]
2. a mark made as a signature (Job 31:35).^[3][2]

Word family

• תָּוָה (tāwâ, “to make a mark”)

Descendants

• Modern Hebrew תו (tav)^[10]
• English tav^[4]

Related words

• אוֹת (ʾôṯ)

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. תָּו
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. תָּו
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm; Buhl, Frants (1915), Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 17th ed., Leipzig: F. C. W. Vogel, p. s.v. תָּו
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. תָּו I
7. ^ 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. תוה I
8. ^ Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
9. ^ 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. תָּו II
10. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
12. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143