הוּא masculine הִיא feminine (plural masculine
הֵ֫מָּה,
הֵם; feminine
הֵ֫נָּה,
הֵן [the latter only with prefixes]; see these words),
pronoun of the 3rd person singular,
he, she, used also (in both genders) for the neuter it, Latin
is, ea, id. (The
א is not orthographic merely, but radical, being written on Moabite and Phoenician inscriptions, though dropped in some of the later dialects. [In Hebrew only
Jeremiah 29:23 Kt, and in the proper name
אֱלִיהוּ.] Moabite (MI
6; 27) and Phoenician (often)
הא; Aramaic of Zinjirli
הא, once
הו (DHM
Inschr. von Sendschirli 55);
הוּא,
הִיא Syriac
vuh,
ych; Arabic
هُوَ,
هِىَ (for
hū’a, hī’a, W
SG 104); Ethiopic
ውእቱ፡ ይእቲ፡ we’ětū, ye’ětī; perhaps also Assyrian
šû, šî,
himself, herself suffix
šu, ši; compare demonstrative
šuatu, šiati (see Krae
BAS. i. 383 & references, W
SG 98, 105 Dl
§ 55b, 57). In the Pentateuch,
הוא is of common gender, the feminine form
הִיא occurring only 11 times, namely
Genesis 14:2;
Genesis 20:5;
Genesis 38:25 (see Masora here),
Leviticus 11:39;
Leviticus 13:10,
21;
Leviticus 16:31;
Leviticus 20:17;
Leviticus 21:9;
Numbers 5:13,
14. The punctuators, however, sought to assimilate the usage of the Pentateuch to that of the rest of the OT, and accordingly wherever
הוא was construed as a feminine pointed it
הִוא (as a
Qr perpetuum). Outside the Pentateuch the same Qr occurs
1 Kings 17:15;
Isaiah 30:33;
Job 31:11a — probably for the sake of removing grammatical anomalies: five instances of the converse change, namely of
היא to be read as
הוּא, occur for a similar reason,
1 Kings 17:15 (
וַתּאֹכַל הוּאוָֿהִיא to be read as
וַתּאֹכַל הִיאוָֿהוּא, on account of the feminine verb)
Psalm 73:16;
Job 31:11b (
כי הוא זמה והיא עָוֺן פלילים to be read as
כי היא זמה והוא עון פלילים),
Ecclesiastes 5:8;
1 Chronicles 29:16. The origin of the peculiarity in the Pentateuch is uncertain. It can hardly be a real archaism : for the fact that Arabic, Aramaic, & Ethiopic have distinct forms for masculine & feminine shews that both must have formed part of the original Semitic stock, and consequently of Hebrew as well, from its earliest existence as an independent language. Nor is the peculiarity confined to the Pentateuch: in the Manuscript of the Later Prophets, of A.D., now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile by Strack (1876), the feminine occurs written
הוא (see the passages cited in the
Adnotationes Criticae, p. 026). In Phoenician both masculine and feminine are alike written
הא (CIS i.
1:9 מלך צדק הא,
1:13 מלאכת הא,
3:10 אדם הא,
1:11 ממלכת הא, CIS 93:2; CIS 94:2), though naturally this would be
read as hu’ or
hi’ as occasion required. Hence, as
shews that in the older Hebrew MSS. the
scriptio plena was not yet generally introduced, it is probably that originally
הא was written for both genders in Hebrew likewise, and that the epicene
הוא in the Pentateuch originated at a comparatively late epoch in the transmission of the text — perhaps in connection with the assumption, which is partly borne out by facts (compare De
ZKWL 1880, pp. 393-399), that in the older language feminine forms were more sparingly used than subsequently.)
In usage
הוּא (feminine
הִיא; plural
הֵ֫מָּה,
הֵם,
׃ הֵ֫נָּה see
הֵ֫מָּה) is
1. an emphatic he (she, it, they), sometimes equivalent to himself (herself, itself, themselves), or (especially with the article) that (those):
a. Genesis 3:15 הוא ישׁופך ראשׁ he (
αὐτὸς) shall bruise thee as to the head (opposed to the following
אתה thou),
Genesis 3:20 for
she (and no one else) was the mother of all living (so often in causal sentences, where some emphasis on the subject is desirable as
Judges 14:3;
Psalm 24:2;
Psalm 25:15;
Psalm 33:9;
Psalm 91:3;
Psalm 103:14;
Psalm 148:5;
Job 5:18;
Job 11:11;
Job 28:24;
Jeremiah 5:5;
Jeremiah 34:7b Hosea 6:1;
Hosea 11:10 : Dr
1 Samuel 14:18),
1 Samuel 4:20 Adah bare Jabal
הוא היה אבי ישׁב אהלים he (
ἐκεῖνος) was the father of tent-dwellers,
1 Samuel 4:21;
1 Samuel 10:8 he began to be a mighty one in the earth,
1 Samuel 20:5 (
αὐτός),
Judges 13:5;
Isaiah 32:7;
Isaiah 33:22;
2 Kings 14:7,
22,
25;
Hosea 10:2 he — the unseen observer of their thoughts and deeds (Che),
Hosea 13:15b (
he, the foe figured by the east wind). (For its use thus in circumstantial clauses see Dr
§ 157, 160, 168, 169.) And where the predicate is a substantive or participle,
Genesis 2:11 הוּא הַסֹּבֵב ֗֗֗ that is the one which encompasseth etc.,
Genesis 2:13;
Genesis 2:14;
Genesis 10:12 that is the great city. So in the explanatory notices,
Genesis 14:3 הוּא יָם הַמֶּלַת that is the salt sea,
Genesis 14:8 הוּאצֹֿעַר that is Zoar,
Genesis 36:1 —
c. appended alone to a
verb (more rarely, but always with intentional emphasis),
Exodus 4:14 I know
כי דבר ידבר הוא that
he can speak,
Exodus 4:16;
1 Samuel 22:18 ויפגע הוא בכהנים and
he (though none else would do it) smote the priests,
1 Samuel 23:22 for one hath told me,
עָרֹם יַעְרִם הוּא He can deal subtilly,
Ezekiel 12:12 (peculiarly), compare Dr
§ 160 n.: very rarely indeed to a noun
Numbers 18:23 הַלֵּוִי הוּא Isaiah 7:14 הוא י׳,
Esther 9:1 (
הֵמָּה) being probably all the examples in the OT.
2. It resumes the subject with emphasis:
b. when the predicate is a
noun,
Genesis 2:14 and the fourth river,
הוּא פְרָת it was the Euphrates,
Genesis 2:19;
Genesis 9:18;
Genesis 15:2;
Genesis 42:6 הַשַּׁלִּיט וְיוֺסֵף הוּא and Joseph,
he was the ruler etc.: in sentences of the type
הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים י׳,
הוּא הַנִּלְחָם י׳ לָכֶם,
הוּא נַחֲלָֽֽֽתְךָ י׳,
Deuteronomy 3:22;
Deuteronomy 4:35;
Deuteronomy 7:9;
Deuteronomy 10:9;
Joshua 13:14,
33;
Isaiah 9:14;
Isaiah 33:6;
Hosea 11:5 (in these cases, to avoid stiffness, it is convenient often to drop the pronoun in translating, as 'And the fourth river
was the Euphrates:' the pronoun, however, though it then corresponds to the substantive verb in English, does not really
express it, the copula, as the examples shew, being in fact understood. Sometimes in AV the pronoun is retained for emphasis, as Deuteronomy
ll. cc.) So
3. Where, however, the pron. follows the predicate, its position gives it the minimum of emphasis, and it expresses (or resumes) the subject as unobtrusively as possible: thus
b. resuming the subject,
Genesis 31:16 all the wealth which God hath taken etc.,
לנו הוא ולבנינו it is ours and our children's,
Genesis 31:43 and all that thou seest,
לי הוא it is mine (or, omitting the pronoun, as not required in our idiom, simply)
is mine,
Genesis 41:26 חלום פרעה אחד הוא the dream of Pharaoh
is one,
Genesis 48:5 (
לי הם),
Exodus 3:5 for the place where on thou standest,
אַדְמַת קֹדֶשׁ הוּא it is holy ground,
Numbers 13:32;
Numbers 21:26;
Deuteronomy 1:17;
Joshua 5:15;
Joshua 6:19;
Job 3:19 + often;
Genesis 23:15 ארץ ֗֗֗ מַההִֿוא, so
Psalm 39:5;
Isaiah 41:22 (
הֵנָּה);
הֵמָּה....
אַתֶּם (unusual)
Zephaniah 2:12. (In all such cases the predicate is not referred directly to the subject, but, the subject being made a
casus pendens, it is resumed by the pronoun, and the predicate thus referred to it indirectly. By this means the sentence is lightened and relieved, especially if the subject consist of many words: in
Genesis 31:16 for instance, the direct form of predicate
כִּי לָנוּ וּלְבָנֵינוּ כָּלהָֿעשֶׁר אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֱלֹהִים מֵאָבִינוּ would have been heavy and inelegant.) So
d. peculiarly, as the subject of
לֹא,
Jeremiah 5:12 לוֺא הוּא He is not; and as embracing its predicate in itself,
Isaiah 18:2,
7a nation terrible
מִןהֿוּא (=
מַאֲשֶׁר הוּא) from (the time that)
it was,
Nahum 2:9 מִימֵי הִיא from the days that (
stative construct Ges
§ 130. 4) as
it was,
2 Kings 7:7 they left the camp
כַּאֲשֶׁר הִיא as
it was (compare
כַּאֲשֶׁר הֵמָּה 2 Kings 7:10). (On
3, compare Dr
§ 198, with
Obs.)
4. It anticipates (as it seems) the subject namely
b. after pronouns —
(
α)
2 Samuel 7:28 אַתָּה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים Thou art
he — God,
Psalm 44:5 אתה הוא מלבי thou art
he — my king,
Isaiah 37:16;
Isaiah 43:25 (
אנכי),
Isaiah 51:9,
10,
12;
Isaiah 52:6;
Jeremiah 14:22;
Jeremiah 29:23 Kt +; compare
Jeremiah 49:12 וְאַתָּה הוּא נָקֹה תִנָּקֶה and art thou he (that) shall be unpunished ? (with change of person
κατά σύνεσιν, compare
Judges 13:11;
1 Chronicles 21:17;
Ezekiel 38:17.) So Ew
§ 297 b Müll
§ 499. But others, as Ges
Thes Roo
§ 563 De
Isaiah 37:16; Psalm 44:5, treat
הוא as emphasizing the pronoun, 'Thou, he, art God' i.e. Thou and none else art God; '
Thou (emphatic) art my king.'
(
γ)
זֶההֿוּא 1 Chronicles 22:1 Ecclesiastes 1:17; (frequently in Late Hebrew, where the two words coalesce into one
זֶהוּ). On the analogous
אֵלֶּה הֵם ֗֗֗), see
הֵמָּה 4b (
γ). (compare Dr
§ 200, 201)
5. As an emphatic predicate, of God, 'I am He,' i.e. I am He Who
is (opposed to unreal gods, named in context, or to transitory world), the Unseen, yet Omni-present, and Self-consistent, Ruler of the world,
Deuteronomy 32:39 אֲנִי אֲנִי הוּא I, I am
he, and beside me there is no God,
Isaiah 41:4 (see Che)
Isaiah 43:10,
13 even from today I am
he,
Isaiah 46:4;
Isaiah 48:12;
Psalm 102:28 (see Che) thou art
he, and thy years have no end (
usually
ἐγώ εἰμι : in Psalms
σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ). So also, according to many,
Job 3:19, but is
הוא a mere predicate of identity ? see rather
3b.
6. In a neuter sense, that, it (of an action, occurrence, matter, etc.) —
See related Aramaic BDB entry
H1932.
הוּ Jeremiah 29:23 Kt, see
הוּא.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Unabridged, Electronic Database.
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