StrongerBible

on

אוֹן

HebrewH0202strength, might, ...

Appears 13 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 49:3Deu 21:17Job 18:7Job 18:12Job 20:10Job 40:16Psa 78:51Psa 105:36Pro 11:7Isa 40:26Isa 40:29Hos 12:3(4)Hos 12:8(9)
Root family
Word studyOHNnoun

What on means

vigor: the productive strength held in a body, above all a man's prime, and by extension the property that strength piles up

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

Hebrew has several words for strength, and this one stays close to the body. It names the force a healthy creature can put out, the vigor stored in muscle and sinew. What sets it apart from the ordinary word for strength (כֹּחַ) is that Hebrew also hears in it a man's power to father children.

That is why the firstborn son carries such a striking title. He is never called the strongest of the sons; he is called the first yield of his father's vigor, the first thing produced by a man in his prime. When the Psalms describe the night Egypt's firstborn died, they reach for the very same phrase, so the blow falls not only on a generation of children but on the nation's power to keep producing them.

From vigor the word slides naturally into what vigor produces. A person who works hard ends up with something to show for it, so the same word can name his property. Ephraim boasts in Hosea that he has grown rich and "found" this for himself, and in Job a swindler's own hands have to give it back. English needs at least two words, "strength" and "wealth", for what Hebrew keeps in one.

Isaiah 40 turns the word into a quiet argument. The stars are marshaled by a God of immeasurable vigor, and a few lines later the same word names exactly what worn out human beings do not have. What runs dry in us never runs dry in him.

Nuances

1aa man's generative vigor: the prime of his powers, out of which his first son comes
Gen 49:3Deu 21:17Psa 78:51Psa 105:36
1bbodily strength: the physical vigor of a person, an animal, or God
TranslatabilityDirect
Job 18:7Job 18:12Job 40:16Isa 40:26Isa 40:29Hos 12:3(4)
1cwealth: the property a person's own exertion has piled up
TranslatabilityApproximate
Job 20:10Pro 11:7Hos 12:8(9)

What scholars say about on

The standard lexicons treat אוֹן I as one noun, from a root generally taken to mean be strong or capable, with three related uses: generative power (Gen 49:3; Deut 21:17; Ps 78:51; 105:36), physical strength or vigor (Job 18:7, 12; 40:16; Hos 12:4 in the Hebrew numbering; Isa 40:26, 29), and wealth or property (Hos 12:9 Hebrew; Job 20:10; Prov 11:7). BDB gathers all three under a single entry as vigour and wealth; HALOT and DCH keep the same three-way division. The noun is formally close to, but lexically distinct from, אָוֶן (H0205), trouble or wickedness, and that resemblance drives the textual argument at two of the passages. At Prov 11:7 אוֹנִים is taken as wealth by the lexicons, as strong men by some commentators, and repointed toward אָוֶן by others following the Greek tradition (see Fox on the verse). At Job 18:12 the compressed clause רָעֵב אֹנוֹ is read either as his vigour is famished or as his wealth becomes hunger (see Clines). In Hos 12:4 וּבְאוֹנוֹ is rendered either by his strength or in his manhood, and Andersen and Freedman track Hosea's sustained play on this sound field, which runs on into עָוֹן in the following verse. Isaiah 40 sets the plural of divine power at 40:26 against the human lack of אוֹנִים at 40:29, an intentional contrast noted in the commentaries on Second Isaiah.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. אוֹן Ilexicon
  • BDB, s.v. אוֹןlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. אוֹן Ilexicon
  • Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 10-31, Anchor Yale Bible 18B (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), on Proverbs 11:7commentary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary 17 (Dallas: Word Books, 1989), on Job 18:12commentary
  • Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Hosea, Anchor Bible 24 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980), on Hosea 12:4commentary

All attested forms of אוֹן

m s construct

אֹנוֹ, אוֹנוֹ, וּבְאוֹנוֹ

Deu 21:17, Job 18:12, Job 40:16, Job 18:7, Job 20:10, Hos 12:3

m p absolute

אוֹנִים

Psa 78:51, Pro 11:7, Isa 40:26, Isa 40:29

m s absolute

אוֹן

Hos 12:8

m s construct

אוֹנִי

Gen 49:3

m s construct

אוֹנָם

Psa 105:36