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neqebah

Neqebah

נקבה

ostensibly, neqebah means female, however, this might not be accurate. FIXME analyze it

There are only 22 uses of the word, half of them in the book of Leviticus. The more typical word for female is ish.

Strangely, a parallel exists in the proscription against graven images. This is a theme that occurs numerous times, notably in the so-called “ten commandments” of Exodus 20. Typically the rendering is “anything on earth or in the heavens”, However, Deuteronomy 4:16 gives echoes the command, but replaces earth and heaven with “male (zakar) and female (neqebah)”.

Deuteronomy 4:16 - …lest you act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of any figure the likeness of male or female

However, as I have discussed elsewhere, the “earth and heavens” interpretation is grossly mistranslated. The actual subjects of the prohibition in Exodus 20 are the Mayim and Shemim, so in reality, what is happening in Deuteronomy is not a replacing of “earth and heaven” but of “Mayim and Shemim”. Thus we have an interesting parallel being set up between Mayim and Shemim and “male and female”. This could be an important clue in understanding gender issues and the ancestral (genetic) portions of the book of Genesis.


LexID 5347

neqebah.txt · Last modified: 2023/11/10 12:45 (external edit)

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