StrongerBible

yonah

יוֹנָה

HebrewH3123“dove, pigeon”

Appears 31 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 8:8Gen 8:9Gen 8:10Gen 8:11Gen 8:12Lev 1:14Lev 5:7Lev 5:11Lev 12:6Lev 12:8Lev 14:22Lev 14:30Lev 15:14Lev 15:29Num 6:10Psa 55:6(7)Psa 68:13(14)Sng 1:15Sng 2:14Sng 4:1Sng 5:2Sng 5:12Sng 6:9Isa 38:14Isa 59:11Isa 60:8Jer 48:28Ezk 7:16Hos 7:11Hos 11:11Nam 2:7(8)
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradeyoh-NAHnoun

What yonah means

a dove or pigeon, specifically the common rock dove and its young: the affordable altar-bird for the poor and a frequent image of tenderness, grief, and swift flight

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Yonah is the everyday Hebrew word for the dove or pigeon, most likely named for the soft cooing sound the bird makes. It always refers to the same literal creature, the common rock dove that nested in cliffs and was kept in dovecotes for food and for sacrifice.

The reason one plain word carries such a wide range is that biblical writers watched the bird closely and drew on its real habits. Because the dove was cheap and widely raised, it became the offering a poor worshipper could afford. Because it is gentle and prized, it became a pet name for the beloved. Because its call is a low moan, it became the standard image of grief. Because it flies fast and homes back to its nest, it pictures both escape from danger and exiles coming back. And because it can flutter about in blind panic, it could even stand for a foolish, easily led people.

So the different uses are not different words but different sides of one familiar bird. The literal dove of the flood story and the sacrificial pigeon of the law sit alongside the dove of love poetry, the mourning dove of the prophets, and the homing dove of return, all held together by the creature itself.

Nuances

1athe living bird itself, as when Noah repeatedly sends out a dove to see whether the floodwaters have gone down
Gen 8:8Gen 8:9Gen 8:10Gen 8:11Gen 8:12
1byoung pigeons offered in sacrifice, the bird an ordinary or poor worshipper could afford when a larger animal was beyond reach
Lev 1:14Lev 5:7Lev 5:11Lev 12:6Lev 12:8Lev 14:22Lev 14:30Lev 15:14Lev 15:29Num 6:10
1ca tender term of endearment for the beloved, and for eyes soft with love, in love poetry
TranslatabilityPartial
Sng 1:15Sng 2:14Sng 4:1Sng 5:2Sng 5:12Sng 6:9
Sng 1:15

Whether the dove-imagery for the beloved's eyes evokes the Ancient Near Eastern love goddess, for whom the dove was a sacred messenger, or simply conveys gentleness, beauty, or the fluttering motion of a glance.

  • contestedThe dove functions as a messenger of the goddess of love (Ishtar, Astarte, Aphrodite), so the image carries an erotic, cultic charge.; Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible); Othmar Keel, Deine Blicke sind Tauben
  • contestedThe image is evocative rather than allegorical, conveying beauty, gentleness, or the darting motion of the eyes without invoking a goddess cult.; Michael V. Fox, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs; J. Cheryl Exum, Song of Songs (Old Testament Library)
1dan image of grief and lament, drawn from the dove's low, moaning call
Isa 38:14Isa 59:11Ezk 7:16Nam 2:7(8)
1ean image of the dove in flight: fleeing for safety, nesting out of reach, or homing back from a far country
Psa 55:6(7)Isa 60:8Jer 48:28Hos 11:11
1fan image of a senseless, easily led creature, fluttering this way and that without direction
Hos 7:11
1gan image of shimmering beauty, the dove's wings gleaming like silver and gold
Psa 68:13(14)

What scholars say about yonah

The lexica agree that יוֹנָה is the ordinary Northwest Semitic term for the dove or pigeon (Columba livia), onomatopoeic in origin, imitating the bird's cooing (BDB; HALOT I:402; Gesenius18). It has secure cognates in Ugaritic ynt (the sacrificial ynt qrt), Aramaic and Syriac yawnā, Mandaic, Samaritan Aramaic, and Ethiopic wānos; Akkadian is the exception, using summatu with no cognate, which leads Militarev and Kogan to treat the Proto-Semitic form as a partially distributed isolate. The major lexica separate it firmly from the verb ינה ("to oppress"), rejecting the older folk etymology preserved in Rashi. Botterweck's TDOT article (VI, from ThWAT IV) is the fullest single treatment, covering the species identification, the Priestly sacrificial complex, the figurative range (amorous, lamenting, homing), and the Ancient Near Eastern background in which the dove was the attribute of Inanna, Ishtar, Astarte, and Atargatis. Milgrom (Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible) analyzes the fixed sacrificial pairing of young pigeons and turtledoves, arguing the difference is one of age rather than species and that the birds are the offering accommodated to the poor. For the erotic imagery of the Song, Pope (Song of Songs, Anchor Bible) and Keel (Deine Blicke sind Tauben; Song of Songs) read the dove as a messenger of the love goddess, a strong reading that Fox, Longman, and Exum treat more soberly as evocative rather than allegorical. Wolff (Hosea, Hermeneia) reads the "silly dove" of Hosea 7:11 as a reversal of the bird's usual positive symbolism, set against the homing dove of Hosea 11:11.

In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. יוֹנָהlexicon
  • HALOT I:402, s.v. יוֹנָהlexicon
  • G. J. Botterweck, "יוֹנָה," TDOT VI (ThWAT IV)theological-dictionary
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible, 1991), 168-171, 304-306, 761-766commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible, 1977), 356-357, 399-404commentary
  • Othmar Keel, Deine Blicke sind Tauben (SBS 114-115, 1984)monograph
  • Hans Walter Wolff, Hosea (Hermeneia, 1974), 126-128commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of יוֹנָה

f s absolute

יוֹנָה, הַיּוֹנָה, כְּיוֹנָה, כַּיּוֹנָה, וּכְיוֹנָה

Lev 5:7, Lev 5:11, Lev 12:6, Lev 12:8, Lev 14:22, Lev 15:14, Lev 15:29, Num 6:10

m p absolute

יוֹנִים, וְכַיּוֹנִים, כְּיוֹנִים

Sng 1:15, Sng 4:1, Nam 2:7, Isa 59:11, Isa 60:8, Sng 5:12

f s construct

יוֹנָתִי

Sng 2:14, Sng 5:2, Sng 6:9

m p construct

כְּיוֹנֵי

Ezk 7:16