Thursday, March 19, 2015

Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 2:23

Genesis 2:23
 
כג וַיֹּאמֶר הָאָדָם זֹאת הַפַּעַם עֶצֶם מֵעֲצָמַי וּבָשָׂר מִבְּשָׂרִי לְזֹאת יִקָּרֵא אִשָּׁה כִּי מֵאִישׁ לֻקֳחָה־זֹּאת:
 
Transliteration: va-yomer ha-adam zot ha-paam etsem me-atsamay u-vasar mi-b’sari l-zot yiqre ishah ki me-ish luqacha-zot.
Translation:    The man said this, this time, is a bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh, this shall be called woman for from man this was taken.
Vocabulary in this lesson:
זֹאת
 this
פַּעַם
time
עֶצֶם
Bone
 
Here you see the passive tense of laqach, that verb I had to eat my words on in a previous lesson.
 
Demonstrative pronouns
 
“This”
Singular
Plural
Gender
זֶה
אֵלֶּה
Masculine
זֹאת
אֵלֶּה
Feminine
 
“That”
Singular
Plural
Gender
הַהוּא
הַהֶם
Masculine
הַהִיא
הַהֶן
Feminine
 
The only two languages that I knew of where the pun on man and woman works, are Hebrew and English.  But remember, English developed after the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain and thus has a German basis, while Hebrew is a Semitic language.   In German itself the pun doesn’t work. 
 
Some online research turned up that in Akkadian there was a pun awilu and awiltu, man and woman respectively, but not in Sumerian.
 
Notice the change from etsem to atsamay.  It’s the same as a change from erets to aratsot.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights  Reserved

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