Tuesday, March 31, 2026

What does the Hebrew particle נא- (-na') mean, please?

PHILOLOGY: Naʾ נָא — Translate This Word Now, Please! (Prof. Steven E. Fassberg, TheTorah.com).
The Hebrew particle נָא naʾ appears almost four hundred times in the Bible. How should it be translated? To answer this question, we need to look at: 1) the biblical contexts; 2) the ancient translations of the Bible; 3) medieval grammarians; and 4) modern grammarians.
If we move a little further afield and look at cognates, Akkadian has an enclitic particle -ma which has an emphatic sense. I've wondered if biblical Hebrew -na' had that usage too. It often fits the context. Then there's the baffling Ugaritic enclitic particle -m ...

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