et
את
Pronounced 'et' or 'it', the intended meaning of this word in the ancient Hebrew texts is somewhat unclear. not to be confused with eteh
Most of the time the word is simply ignored and skipped in standard translations. This despite scholarly general concensus that the word is cognate with Akkadian 𒀉𒋾 (itti), meaning “with”. This should indicate that an appropriate translation is possible at least within texts roughly contemporary with Akkadian, that is some time between 2500 BCE and 500 BCE. A corollary to this is that texts where this definition does not work may predate this period or at least may be passed down from earlier traditional histories, whether written or oral, that predate Akkadian.
In the modern Hebrew language, the word has come to mean 'you', but this is actually cognate with ancient Hebrew eteh, not 'et'. It but also plays a variety of other roles in the modern Hebrew grammar. Specifically, it is placed before a noun that is the object of a sentence, but never before the same noun when it is the subject of a sentence. In grammatical terms, it specifies the accusative case.
This does not necessarily imply that the ancient meaning and usage was the same, but it does give us a secondary meaning with a consistent pattern which can be tested against the text.
We feel that
- it is inappropriate to ignore any word within the text and that the word is there for a reason.
- they ancient meaning is probably more closely related to the ancient Akkadian than the modern Hebrew.
the simplest case is to assign 'et'=“with” and perform an audit - So far the audit is looking good
| Strongnumber | Instances | Ostensibly |
|---|---|---|
| 853 | 11369 (93%) | usually skipped but sometimes “and” |
| 854 | ~800 (7%) | usually “with” but also from, for, and, in , to |
| 855 | 5 | “axe” or “hoe” |