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na'arah

נַעֲרָה

HebrewH5291damsel, maid, ...

Appears 63 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 24:14Gen 24:16Gen 24:28Gen 24:55Gen 24:57Gen 24:61Gen 34:3 (2×)Gen 34:12Exo 2:5Deu 22:15 (2×)Deu 22:16Deu 22:19Deu 22:20Deu 22:21Deu 22:23Deu 22:24Deu 22:25Deu 22:26 (2×)Deu 22:27Deu 22:28Deu 22:29Jdg 19:3Jdg 21:12Rut 2:6Rut 2:8Rut 2:22Rut 2:23Rut 3:21Sa 9:111Sa 25:421Ki 1:21Ki 1:32Ki 5:2Est 2:2Est 2:3Est 2:8Est 2:9 (2×)Est 2:12 (2×)Est 4:4Est 4:16Job 41:5(40:29)Pro 9:3Pro 27:27Pro 31:15
Word studynah-ah-RAHnoun

What na'arah means

a girl or young woman: a female past childhood but not yet settled as a wife or mother, often one of marriageable age

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the everyday Hebrew word for a young female, the counterpart to the common word for a boy or young man. It covers the years between childhood and full adult standing as a wife, so it can name a little girl, a teenager, or a young woman ready for marriage. Context, not the word itself, tells you which.

Most often it points to a young woman of marriageable age, which is why it fills stories of courtship and the laws about marriage. Rebekah is this word when the servant first meets her at the well, and the marriage laws use it again and again for the young woman whose protection and honor are at stake. The same word can shrink to a small child, as with the captured Israelite girl who waits on Naaman's wife, or simply mean any unmarried young woman, like the candidates gathered for the king in Esther.

A closely linked use is the young woman who serves in a household. A wealthy woman traveled with her own young attendants, and these maids are named with this same word. The girl is not a different kind of person here. She is simply a young woman in someone's service, which is why one word covers both the daughter at home and the maid in the household.

The word carries no built-in claim about whether she is a virgin. Where the text needs to stress that, it adds another word or a phrase, so reading sexual status into this term by itself goes beyond what it says.

Nuances

1aa girl or marriageable young woman, named by her stage of life
Gen 24:14Gen 24:16Gen 24:28Gen 24:55Gen 24:57Gen 34:3 (2×)Gen 34:12Deu 22:15 (2×)Deu 22:16Deu 22:19Deu 22:20Deu 22:21
1ba female servant or attendant: a young woman in the service of a master or mistress
Gen 24:61Exo 2:5Rut 2:8Rut 2:22Rut 2:23Rut 3:21Sa 9:111Sa 25:42Est 2:9 (2×)Est 4:4Est 4:16Pro 9:3

What scholars say about na'arah

The standard lexica (BDB; HALOT; DCH) treat נַעֲרָה as a single word for a young female, the feminine of נַעַר, ranging from a young girl to a marriageable young woman, with a derived use for a female servant or attendant. The semantic spine is life-stage, not marital or sexual status; the term does not in itself denote virginity, which Hebrew marks with בְּתוּלָה or an explanatory phrase. The Deuteronomic marriage and seduction laws use it for the young woman at the center of the case, and narrative repeatedly applies it to the maidservants accompanying a mistress. A long-noted scribal feature is that the Pentateuch usually writes the consonants of this word identically to the masculine form (the common-gender spelling, conventionally pointed as feminine), with the fully feminine spelling becoming regular only outside the Torah, a point discussed in the Masoretic and grammatical literature.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. נַעֲרָהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. נַעֲרָהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. נַעֲרָהlexicon
  • TWOT, entry on נער / נַעֲרָהtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of נַעֲרָה

f s absolute

נַּעֲרָה, נַעֲרָה, נַּעֲרָ, נַּעַרָה

Deu 22:15, Deu 22:15, Deu 22:19, Deu 22:20, Deu 22:21, Deu 22:24, Deu 22:25, Deu 22:26

f p construct

נַעֲרֹתֶיהָ, נַעֲרוֹתֶיהָ

Gen 24:61, Exo 2:5, 1Sa 25:42, Pro 9:3, Pro 31:15, Est 2:9

f p absolute

נְעָרוֹת, נְּעָרוֹת

1Sa 9:11, Est 2:2, Est 2:8, Est 2:9

f p construct

נַעֲרוֹת

Rut 2:23, Est 4:4

f p construct

נַעֲרֹתַי, נַעֲרֹתָי

Est 4:16, Rut 2:8

f p construct

נַעֲרוֹתֶיךָ

Job 41:5, Pro 27:27

f p construct

נַעֲרוֹתָיו

Rut 2:22, Rut 3:2