What’s in a Word?

other

synonyms

דבר · ויאמר · וידבר · מלוכה · מושל · בא

Bottom line

The column's founding premise: in Lashon HaKodesh a word is not a convention but the essence of the thing, which is why davar means both word and thing; every element of creation is a Divine word set into matter. Two Hebrew words for one idea therefore always differ. Render vayomer he said (brief) and vayidaber he spoke (extended); melucha kingship accepted by the people and moshel ruler whether accepted or not; ba and atah both came, the second being Aramaic and chosen for that reason. The rule a translator must not break: never render two different Hebrew words with one English word in a passage that has set them side by side.

Distinctions

the five resolutions

Where two Hebrew words look identical in meaning, the answer usually takes one of these forms:

  1. They only seem alike, and a slight, barely visible difference separates them.
  2. They name the same thing but focus on different properties of it.
  3. In verbs, the same act done to a different degree or with a different intent.
  4. Taxonomy: one is the general term (hypernym), the other a species that falls inside it (hyponym).
  5. The Torah has borrowed a word from another language to make a point, and the loanword means what a Hebrew word already meant.

vayomer (ויאמר) and vayidaber (וידבר)

Malbim: vayomer is a short, brief verbal expression; vayidaber is a long, drawn-out address. Example of resolution 3.

melucha (מלוכה) and moshel (מושל)

Tehillim 22:29, "for to Hashem is melucha, and He is moshel over the nations." Ibn Ezra: both are sovereignty, but a melech is a popular sovereign whose rule his constituents willingly took upon themselves, while a moshel rules on regardless of whether his people object. Example of resolution 1 or 2. See entries/king-melech-moshel.md, where the Vilna Gaon works the same pair out at length.

ba (בא) and atah (אתה)

Devarim 33:2: "Hashem ba from Sinai... and He atah from the holy multitudes." The meforshim: the two words mean the same, but the first is Hebrew and the second Aramaic, and the Torah reaches for Aramaic here to hint that Hashem first offered the Torah to the other nations before giving it to Klal Yisrael. Example of resolution 5.

davar (דבר)

The premise itself. One word carries "word" and "thing" because the two are the same: creation is Divine speech crystallized into material existence. On this footing, close study of what a word actually means is not an indulgence but required.

Rendering guidance

  • Fix a stable English word to each Hebrew word across a passage and hold it there. Vayomer is "said," vayidaber is "spoke"; if the English needs variety, get it from the sentence, not by swapping the pair.
  • Where two synonyms sit in one pasuk, assume the second is doing work. Devarim 33:2 and Tehillim 22:29 both look like poetic repetition and are not.
  • Trap: English "speak" and "say" are interchangeable in ordinary prose, so a translator will pick by rhythm. That destroys Malbim's distinction wherever a derashah turns on which verb the Torah used.
  • Trap: an Aramaic word inside a Hebrew pasuk is a signal, not a stylistic accident. Do not smooth atah into the same English as ba without a note.
  • Where a word is the general term and its partner a species of it (resolution 4), the English must keep the hierarchy: a general word for the hypernym, a narrow one for the hyponym, never two words of equal breadth.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Introduction: Synonyms in the Hebrew Language," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 19 Sivan 5776 (2016-06-25), https://articles.ohr.edu/articles/introduction-synonyms-in-the-hebrew-language; raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/6817-introduction-synonyms-in-the-hebrew-language.md. Primary loci: Tehillim 22:29 with Ibn Ezra (the article prints the word as melcuha; read melucha); Devarim 33:2. The column names as its recurring authorities the early medieval grammarians together with the Vilna Gaon, the Malbim, Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel, Rabbi Aharon Marcus and Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer. Related entries: entries/king-melech-moshel.md and entries/coming-biah-halichah-atah.md.