Naʾ נָא — Translate This Word Now, Please!

Unless otherwise noted, translations of the Hebrew Bible follow NJPS, with modifications.

In Biblical Hebrew, these verbs appear in two forms: the 3rd person short imperfect and 1st person lengthened imperfect.

See also:

(d) אוֹי־נָא:

^{ירמיה מה:ג} אָמַרְתָּ אוֹי־נָא לִי כִּי יָסַף יְ־הוָה יָגוֹן עַל מַכְאֹבִי יָגַעְתִּי בְּאַנְחָתִי וּמְנוּחָה לֹא מָצָאתִי.

^{Jer 45:3} You say, “Woe to me for YHWH has added sorrow to my pain. I am worn out with groaning, and I have found no rest.”

(e) נֶגְדָה־נָּא:

^{תהלים קטז:יד} נְדָרַי לַי־הוָה אֲשַׁלֵּם נֶגְדָה־נָּא לְכָל עַמּוֹ.

^{Ps 116:14} To YHWH I shall pay my vows, before all his people (shall I pay).

(f) אַיֵּה־נָא:

^{תהלים קטו:ב} לָמָּה יֹאמְרוּ הַגּוֹיִם אַיֵּה־נָא אֱלֹהֵיהֶם.

^{Ps 115:2} Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

There is also a noticeable concentration of examples of נָא in verses that begin with one of the following particles and expressions:

(g) וְעַתָּה...נָא:

^{בראשׁית מד:לג} וְעַתָּה יֵשֶׁב־נָא עַבְדְּךָ תַּחַת הַנַּעַר עֶבֶד לַאדֹנִי וְהַנַּעַר יַעַל עִם אֶחָיו.

^{Gen 44:33} And now let your servant remain in place of the youth as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

(h) הֲלֹא...נָא:

^{בראשׁית יג:ט} הֲלֹא כָל הָאָרֶץ לְפָנֶיךָ הִפָּרֶד נָא מֵעָלָי אִם הַשְּׂמֹאל וְאֵימִנָה וְאִם הַיָּמִין וְאַשְׂמְאִילָה.

^{Gen 13:9} Is not all of the land before you? Separate yourself from me! If you go north, I will go south; and if you go south, I will go north.

(i) וְאוּלָם...נָא:

^{איוב ב:ה} אוּלָם שְׁלַח־נָא יָדְךָ וְגַע אֶל עַצְמוֹ וְאֶל בְּשָׂרוֹ אִם לֹא אֶל פָּנֶיךָ יְבָרֲכֶךָּ.

^{Job 2:5} But extend your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely blaspheme You to Your face.

(Six of the seven occurrences of וְאוּלָם...נָא are in the book of Job.)

(j) לָכֵן...נָא:

^{ישׁעיה נא:כא} לָכֵן שִׁמְעִי־נָא זֹאת עֲנִיָּה וּשְׁכֻרַת וְלֹא מִיָּיִן.

^{Isa 51:21} Therefore, hear this, O afflicted and drunken one, but not from wine!

^{LXX Gen 16:2} εἶπεν δὲ Σαρα πρὸς Αβραμ Ἰδοὺ συνέκλεισέν με κύριος τοῦ μὴ τίκτειν· εἴσελθε οὖν πρὸς τὴν παιδίσκην μου, ἵνα τεκνοποιήσῃς ἐξ αὐτῆς. ὑπήκουσεν δὲ Αβραμ τῆς φωνῆς Σαρας. Septuagint translations follow NETS, with modifications.

See also Abram’s request to Sarai as they travel to sojourn in Egypt:

^{LXX Gen 12:13} εἰπὸν οὖν ὅτι Ἀδελφὴ αὐτοῦ εἰμι, ὅπως ἂν εὖ μοι γένηται διὰ σέ, καὶ ζήσεται ἡ ψυχή μου ἕνεκεν σοῦ.

^{LXX Gen 12:13} Say, therefore, “I am his sister,” so that it may go well with me because of you, and my soul will live on your account.

We also occasionally find נָא rendered as δή in the Torah; e.g., Gen 15:5.

^{LXX 1 Sam 16:22} καὶ ἀπέστειλεν Σαουλ πρὸς Ιεσσαι λέγων Παριστάσθω δὴ Δαυιδ ἐνώπιον ἐμοῦ, ὅτι εὗρεν χάριν ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς μου.

^{LXX Isa 47:12} στῆθι νῦν ἐν ταῖς ἐπαοιδαῖς σου καὶ τῇ πολλῇ φαρμακείᾳ σου, ἃ ἐμάνθανες ἐκ νεότητός σου, εἰ δυνήσῃ ὠφεληθῆναι.

^{LXX Isa 47:12} Stand now (στῆθι νῦν = עִמְדִי־נָא) in your enchantments and your abundant witchcraft, which you learned from your youth, if you will be able to receive benefit!

See also אַל־נָא תִמָּנַע מֵהֲלֹךְ אֵלָי, “Do not refuse to come to me” (Num 22:16) = Ἂξιῶ σε μὴ ὀκνήσῃς ἐλθεῖν πρός με, “I request of you, ‘Do not hesitate to come to me’”; and cf. אַל־נָא אַחַי תָּרֵעוּ, “My friends, do not commit such a wrong” (Gen 19:7) = Μηδαμῶς, ἀδελφοί, μὴ πονηρεύσησθε, “By no means, O brethren, do not behave wickedly.”

^{LXX Gen 19:18} εἶπεν δὲ Λωτ πρὸς αὐτούς Δέομαι, κύριε.

Texts from Targum Onqelos are from the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project.

See, e.g., Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1906), 774a.

Abraham Tal, A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic (Leiden, 2000), 522. Ze’ev Ben-Ḥayyim derives ני from ניח (Ze’ev Ben-Ḥayyim, “Observations on the Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon from the Samaritan Tradition,” in Hebräische Wortforschung: Festschrift zum 80. Geburtstag von W. Baumgartner, VTSup16 (Leiden, 1967), 19.

In the targum, בעינן is an inflected form of the verb בעי.

The most common translation is obsecro, “I implore.” For example, when Abraham gives Lot his choice of land in which Lot’s people will settle, he says: הֲלֹא כָל הָאָרֶץ לְפָנֶיךָ הִפָּרֶד נָא מֵעָלָי, “Is not all of the land before you? Separate yourself from me!” The Vulgate reads:

^{Vulgate Gen 13:9} ecce universa terra coram te est recede a me obsecro.

^{Vulgate Gen 13:9} “Behold, the whole land is before you. Separate from me, I implore!”

Other translations include:

quaeso, “I beg”—quaeso te ut hodie hic maneas pariterque laetemur, “I beg you to remain here today and let us rejoice” (= הוֹאֶל־נָא וְלִין וְיִטַב לִבֶּךָ, Judg 19:6)

oro—“I beg”: indica oro mihi ubi est domus videntis, “Tell me, I beg, where is the house of the seer?” (= הַגִּידָה־נָּא לִי אֵי זֶה בֵּית הָרֹאֶה, 1 Sam 9:18)

precamur, “we entreat”—precamur ut loquaris nobis servis tuis syriace, “we entreat that you speak to us, your servants, Aramaic” (= דַּבֶּר־נָא אֶל עֲבָדֶיךָ אֲרָמִית, 2 Kgs 18:26)

igitur, “therefore”—transibo igitur et videbo terram hanc optimam, “I will go, therefore, and see this good land” (= אֶעְבְּרָה־נָּא וְאֶרְאֶה אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה, Deut 3:25)

nunc, “now”—tantum nunc libera nos, “only now set us free!” (= אַךְ הַצִּילֵנוּ נָא הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, Judg 10:15)

Some passages also combine request and logical consequence. For example:

dic ergo obsecro te quod soror mea sis, “Say, therefore, I beg you, that you are my sister!” (= אִמְרִי־נָא אֲחֹתִי אָתְּ, Gen 12:13)

quaeso ergo te ut et sermo tuus ab eis non dissentiat loquarisque prospera, “I beg you, therefore, that your word may not differ from theirs and speak also favorably” (= וִיהִי־נָא דְבָרְךָ כְּאַחַד מֵהֶם וְדִבַּרְתָּ טּוֹב, 2 Chr 18:12).

Citations from the Vulgate are according to the Biblia Sacra Iuxta Vulgatam, 5^th ed. (Stuttgart, 2007). For a recent discussion of Jerome’s different sources in translating the Vulgate, see Paul Rodrigue, Jerome’s Sources in His Translation of the Hebrew Bible, Semitic Languages and Cultures 38 (Open Book Publishers, 2025).

Nĕḥemya Allony, האגרון: כתאב אצול אלשער אלעבראני מאת רב סעדיה גאון. מהדורה מדעית בצירוף מבוא ופירוש [Ha’egron: Kitāb ‘Uṣūl al-Shi‘r al-‘Ibrāni by Rav Sĕ‘adya Ga’on. Critical Edition with Introduction and Commentary] (Academy of the Hebrew Language, 1969), 318.

Solomon L. Skoss, The Hebrew-Arabic Dictionary of the Bible Known as Kitāb Jāmiʿ Al-Alfāẓ (Agrōn) of David ben Abraham al-Fāsī the Karaite (Tenth Cent.) (Yale University Press, 1945), vol. 2, 246:14.

ומלת נא ... היא הפוכה בלשון ישמעאל, “and the word נא … it is reversed in the language of Ishmael” (Gen 12:11); אל נא כמו עתה וכן כל נא שבמקרא והוא הפוך בלשון ישמעאל, “אל נא is like עתה and thus every נא in the Bible, and it is reversed in the language of Ishmael” (Num 10:31).

Isaac Avinery, היכל רש"י[Heichal Rashi] (Mossad Harav Kook, 1979), vol. 2, p. תשיז.

Wilhelm Bacher, Sepher Haschoraschim Wurzelwörterbuch der hebräischen Sprache von Abulwalîd Merwân Ibn Ḡanâh (R. Jona) aus dem Arabischen in’s Hebräische übersetzt von Jehuda Ibn Tibbon (Itzkowkski, 1896), 279:

דבר נא באזני העם אל רפא נא לה ענינו עתה רצוני הראשון אל נא תהי כמת תחנה ובקשה

Speak in the ears of the people (Exod 11:2), O God, heal her! (Num 12:13). Its (נא) meaning is now. I mean the first occurrence (of נא in אל נא רפא נא לה). (The second occurrence in) O God, let her not be like one who has died (Num 12:12) is supplication and request.

J. Biesenthal and F. Lebrecht, ספר השרשים לרבי דויד בן יוסף הקמחי הספרדי [Rabbi Davidis Kimchi Radicum Liber] (Berolini, 1847), 204:

דבר נא באזני העם (שמות יא, ב.), ענינו עתה, וכן כלם. ויש מפרשים אל נא תהי כמת (במדבר יב, יב.), ענין תחינה ובקשה.

Speak in the ears of the people (Exod 11:2), its meaning is now, and (such is the meaning in) all of them (the occurrences). And some explicate Let her not be like one who has died (Num 12:12) as meaning supplication and request.

Brown, Driver, and Briggs, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 609.

David J.A. Clines et al., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 1993–2014), 5:576.

Ahouva Shulman, “The Particle נָא in Biblical Hebrew Prose,” Hebrew Studies 40 (1999): 57; Stephen A. Kaufman, “An Emphatic Plea for Please,” Maarav 7 (1991): 196; Hélène Dallaire, The Syntax of Volitives in Biblical Hebrew and Amarna Canaanite Prose, Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 9 (Eisenbrauns, 2014), 53–58.

L. Koehler, W. Baumgartner, et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Brill, 1994–1999), 656.

Wilhelm Gesenius et al., Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, 18th ed. (De Gruyter, 1987–2012), 4:767.

Paul Haupt, “The Hebrew Particle -nâ,” Johns Hopkins University Circulars XIII.114 (1894): 109. Haupt related it to the Akkadian emphatic particle -ma, which he considered to be the origin of the energic suffix -anna. Most scholars consider נָא to be a clipped form from *yaqṭulanna. See, e.g., Hans Gottlieb, “The Hebrew Particle nâ,” Acta Orientalia 33 ( 1971): 47–54.

M. Bar-Magen, “המלה 'נא' במקרא [The Word ‘na’ in the Bible],” Beit Mikra 25 (1985): 163–171.

Bent Christiansen, “A Linguistic Analysis of the Biblical Hebrew Particle nāʾ: A Test Case,” Vetus Testamentum 59 (2009): 379–393.

Thomas O. Lambdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (Scribners, 1971), 171: “that the command in question is a logical consequence either of an immediately preceding statement or of the general situation in which it is uttered.” Bruce K. Waltke and Michael O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax (Eisenbrauns, 1990), §34.7. So too Steven E. Fassberg, סוגיות בתחביר לשון המקרא [Studies in Biblical Syntax] (Magnes Press, 1994), 44–47.

A different interpretation of the data is presented by the late Joshua Blau, who believes that in Judeo-Arabic translations, as well as in Aramaic translations and even in the Bible itself, there was a semantic development from the meaning of “request” to a meaning of “now.” See Joshua Blau, “הערבית־היהודית — קווים כליים וייחודיים” [On General and Specific Features in Judeo-Arabic] Teʻuda 1 (1980): 187–189.