Bible Geek Word Nerd - Samson - ISH

 

Samson’s daddy is a Man

“A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah from the clan of the Danites…”
Judges 13:2a

We want to discuss three terms in this partial verse: “a certain man”, Manoah, and clan.

“A certain man” is written as ISH ECHAD in Hebrew (in reverse of English because Hebrew prefers to sound like Yoda).  These two Hebrew terms run throughout the Text of the Bible.

ISH (אִישׁ) occurs more than 2000 times in the Text and is a noun that means simply “man”.  For instance, its first appearance is in Genesis 2:23:

The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”

The Hebrew for “woman” is ISHAH (אִשָּׁה).  Hebrew often turns masculine words into feminine ones by adding “AH” (ה).  You ought to be quite familiar with that in the patriarch Abaraham’s wife SARAH, which is the feminine of SAR (שָׂרָה), meaning “prince”.

In the Hebrew Bible, ISH and ISHAH are also used for “husband” and “wife”.  (I am imagining the wedding scene in the classic "The Princess Bride", when Humperdink tries to hurry along his wedding to Buttercup. "Say 'man and wife!'")

Using ISH is only one way to describe an adult male of the human species, even though it is the most common way.  ENOSH (אֱנוֹשׁ) can also mean “man” (some scholars assert that ISH is a contraction of ENOSH, but there is debate on that point). 

“So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city to speak to the MEN of their city.”
Genesis 34:20

ISH and ENOSH are generic terms that mean “man” or “mankind”.  The other Hebrew term which is used for “man” is ADAM (אָדָם), which as everyone knows, comes from ADAMAH  (אֲדָמָה), which means “ground” because G-d formed ADAM from the ADAMAH.

Here is where you get to see brilliant Hebrew wordplay.  From what did G-d form man?  ADAMAH.  Ground.  A feminine noun.  The man ADAM came from the ground, ADAMAH, which is feminine…as a man is born from a woman.  Right from the beginning of the Text, G-d reminds us of the sexes’ interdependency.

ISH and ENOSH are the more common terms used for generic “man” by an order of magnitude.  So when a writer uses ADAM, he uses it with deliberate intent.  If you have an interlinear Bible, it would be enlightening to note when “man” is one or the other Hebrew terms.  If it’s ADAM, ask yourself why it is there.

 

MANOAH is an ISH from the Dan clan.  We will talk about ECHAD tomorrow.