StrongerBible

natar

נָטַר

HebrewH5201“keep, bear a grudge, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 19:18Psa 103:9Sng 1:6 (2×)Sng 8:11Sng 8:12Jer 3:5Jer 3:12Nam 1:2
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradena-TARverb

What natar means

to keep: hold on to something and not let it go, whether a vineyard you guard or anger you refuse to release

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At its core this is one of the Bible's ordinary words for keeping, very close to the more common Hebrew verbs for guarding and watching over. It pictures holding on to something so it is not lost or let go. The two faces it shows in Scripture are the same act aimed at two very different objects.

In the Song of Songs it keeps a vineyard: watching over it, tending it, staying on duty so the fruit is not stolen or spoiled. That is the plain, physical picture, and it is the root meaning everything else grows out of.

Elsewhere the thing kept is anger. To keep anger is to nurse a grudge, to hold a wrong in the heart instead of letting it go, the way English speakers say someone harbors resentment. The same holding-on that guards a vineyard becomes, when the object is a wound, the refusal to forgive. Almost every time the Bible uses it this way it is denying that God does so forever, or forbidding people to do it at all.

Nuances

1ato tend or guard a vineyard: keep watch over it so the fruit is protected
Sng 1:6 (2×)Sng 8:11Sng 8:12
1bto keep anger: hold on to a grievance instead of releasing it; harbor a grudge
Lev 19:18Psa 103:9Jer 3:5Jer 3:12Nam 1:2

What scholars say about natar

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius18) treat נטר as a single root meaning "keep, guard, preserve," a doublet of native Hebrew נצר and equivalent to שמר, with "keep anger" as a figurative extension (cf. German einen Groll hegen); TDOT and TLOT have no separate article and fold it under נצר. The verb is phonologically Aramaic-aligned: proto-Semitic *nṯ̣r yields Hebrew נצר (with ṣ) but Aramaic נטר (with ṭ), and נטר is the unmarked, ubiquitous Aramaic verb for keeping/observing (Dan 7:28; Targumic, Syriac, JBA), routinely rendering Hebrew שמר/נצר. Scholars divide over whether the Hebrew form is a late Aramaism (Wagner, BZAW 96, 1966; Hurvitz, IEJ 18 [1968] and VTSup 160, 2014) or an Israelian northern dialect feature (Rendsburg, in Fassberg-Hurvitz 2006; Noegel-Rendsburg, Solomon's Vineyard, AIL 1, 2009). The LXX bifurcated the senses lexically, using μηνίω for the anger texts (Lev 19:18; Ps 102:9 LXX; Jer 3:12) and φυλάσσω/τηρέω for the Song's vineyard texts, which (with HALOT's homonym apparatus and G. R. Driver) has occasionally tempted a two-homonym analysis, though Barr's caution against multiplying roots (Comparative Philology, 1968) and the parallel polysemy of שמר tell against it. On Lev 19:18 see Milgrom (AYB 3A, 2000, 1650-56), who reads נטר as inward nursing of resentment paired with outward נקם, and Levine (JPS, 1989, 129); the נקם/נטר doublet forbidden to humans there is affirmed of YHWH in Nah 1:2 (Spronk, HCOT, 1997; the Exod 34:6-7 inversion, debated by Floyd, JBL 113 [1994], and Becking, SJOT 9 [1995]). On the divine-non-perpetual-anger formula (Jer 3:5, 12; Ps 103:9; with אַף elided) see Holladay and Lundbom on Jeremiah, and Kraus and Hossfeld-Zenger on Psalm 103. Amos 1:11 is excluded: MT reads טרף, and the נטר reading is an unsupported 19th-century emendation. Pope (AB 7C, 1977) and the Song commentators (Murphy, Fox, Keel, Longman) read the vineyard sense as straightforward tending.

Where scholars disagree about natar

Whether נטר is one root with a single core meaning ("keep," extended to "keep anger") or two unrelated homonyms, one meaning "guard" and one meaning "be angry."

  • majorityOne polysemous root meaning "keep, guard, preserve," with "keep anger" as a figurative extension parallel to the polysemy of שמר; the standard view across the major lexica.; Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon (1907), s.v. נָטַר; Koehler-Baumgartner, HALOT (1994-99), s.v. נטר; James Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1968)
  • minorityTwo homonymous roots, a separate "guard" verb and "be angry" verb; floated on the strength of the Greek translation's clean lexical split but not adopted by any major lexicon as primary.; G. R. Driver, noted in HALOT's homonym apparatus, s.v. נטר

Whether Hebrew נטר's Aramaic-shaped form marks the text as chronologically late (a borrowed Aramaism) or as northern Israelian Hebrew dialect.

  • contestedA late Aramaism, a borrowing diagnostic of Late Biblical Hebrew when set against the native equivalents שמר/נצר.; Max Wagner, Die lexikalischen und grammatikalischen Aramaismen im alttestamentlichen Hebraisch, BZAW 96 (1966); Avi Hurvitz, A Concise Lexicon of Late Biblical Hebrew, VTSup 160 (Brill, 2014)
  • contestedA northern Israelian dialect feature (proto-Semitic *ṯ̣ surfacing as ṭ, shared with Aramaic by geography rather than by late borrowing), pointing to an early northern provenance for the Song of Songs.; Gary A. Rendsburg, "Israelian Hebrew in the Song of Songs" (2006), 315-23; Scott B. Noegel and Gary A. Rendsburg, Solomon's Vineyard, AIL 1 (SBL, 2009)
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

  • Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1907), s.v. נָטַר, 643lexicon
  • Koehler and Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1994-99), s.v. נטרlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 5 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2001), s.v. נטרlexicon
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22, Anchor Yale Bible 3A (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 1650-56commentary
  • Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: JPS, 1989), 129commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs, Anchor Bible 7C (Garden City: Doubleday, 1977), 326ff.commentary
  • Klaus Spronk, Nahum, Historical Commentary on the Old Testament (Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1997), 22-26commentary
  • Jack R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 1-20, Anchor Yale Bible 21A (New York: Doubleday, 1999)commentary
  • Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 3, Hermeneia (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2011), 30-40commentary
  • Gary A. Rendsburg, "Israelian Hebrew in the Song of Songs," in Biblical Hebrew in Its Northwest Semitic Setting, ed. S. E. Fassberg and A. Hurvitz (Jerusalem: Magnes; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2006), 315-23article
  • Max Wagner, Die lexikalischen und grammatikalischen Aramaismen im alttestamentlichen Hebraisch, BZAW 96 (Berlin: Topelmann, 1966)monograph
  • James Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1968)monograph

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

All attested forms of נָטַר

qal imperfect 3ms

יִטּוֹר, יִנְטֹר

Psa 103:9, Jer 3:5

qal participle m p absolute

נֹטְרִים, נֹּטְרִים

Sng 8:12, Sng 8:11

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶטּוֹר

Jer 3:12

qal imperfect 2ms

תִטֹּר

Lev 19:18

qal participle f s absolute

נֹטֵרָה

Sng 1:6

qal participle m s absolute

וְנוֹטֵר

Nam 1:2

qal perfect 1cs

נָטָרְתִּי

Sng 1:6