StrongerBible

netan

נְתַן

AramaicH5415“give, pay, ...”

Appears 7 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Ezr 4:13Ezr 7:20 (2×)Dan 2:16Dan 4:17(14)Dan 4:25(22)Dan 4:32(29)
Word studyneh-TAHNverb

What netan means

to give: to hand over something it is in one's power to grant, whether rule over a kingdom, a delay that was asked for, or money that is owed

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the Aramaic word for giving, and in all seven of its appearances the giver holds the standing to give: a king, a royal treasury, or God. What changes hands is correspondingly weighty, a kingdom, an extra stretch of time, or money the crown either expects or releases.

The verb also covers only part of the work that giving needs in Aramaic. It turns up wherever the giving is still open: what a king may grant, what the Most High keeps on giving, what tribute will be paid, what money is to be spent. Where Daniel and Ezra report a gift already handed over, they use a different verb, יְהַב. The two of them share one job between them, which is why this one is confined to six verses.

Three of those verses are the same sentence, sounded three times in Daniel 4: the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he wishes. A watcher announces it inside the dream, Daniel repeats it to the king as the dream's meaning, and a voice from heaven says it once more as the sentence falls. In that refrain an empire is a grant rather than an achievement, which is precisely what makes it removable.

In Ezra the same verb handles money. Officials opposing the rebuilding warn Artaxerxes that a restored Jerusalem will stop paying its tribute, duty, and toll, and the same king later tells Ezra to spend whatever else the temple needs out of the royal treasury. The funding of the house of God arrives as a line in a foreign king's accounts.

Nuances

1ato hand over rule: to give a kingdom or dominion to whomever the giver chooses
Dan 4:17(14)Dan 4:25(22)Dan 4:32(29)
1bto grant what is asked: to give someone a favor requested, such as more time
Dan 2:16
1cto pay out: to hand over taxes that are owed, or money released for an approved purpose
Ezr 4:13Ezr 7:20 (2×)

What scholars say about netan

HALOT's Aramaic section and BDB's Aramaic lexicon both treat נתן as a single verb "to give," listing the payment uses (Ezra 4:13; 7:20) as contextual specializations rather than a separate root; the third gloss found in some word lists, "put," reflects the range of Hebrew נתן (H5414) and is not attested for the Aramaic verb in the biblical corpus. In Biblical Aramaic the verb is defective, occurring only in the imperfect (Dan 2:16; 4:14, 22, 29 MT; Ezra 4:13; 7:20) and the infinitive (Ezra 7:20), while יהב (H3052) supplies the perfect, imperative and participle; the two roots divide one paradigm between them, a division Hebrew reverses, with נתן carrying nearly the whole paradigm and יהב surviving mainly in the imperative. The grammars of Biblical Aramaic (Rosenthal; Bauer and Leander) describe the pattern, and the critical commentaries on Daniel treat the threefold refrain of Daniel 4 ("the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will") as the theological center of the chapter rather than as a distinct lexical sense. No sense of the verb is in live dispute.

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner-Stamm), Aramaic section, s.v. נתןlexicon
  • BDB, Aramaic Lexicon, s.v. נתןlexicon
  • Franz Rosenthal, A Grammar of Biblical Aramaic (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz)grammar
  • John J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993)commentary
  • H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah (Word Biblical Commentary 16; Waco: Word, 1985)commentary

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

All attested forms of נְתַן

peal imperfect 3ms

יִתְּנִנַּ, יִנְתֵּן

Dan 4:17, Dan 4:25, Dan 4:32, Dan 2:16

peal imperfect 2ms

תִּנְתֵּן

Ezr 7:20

peal imperfect 3mp

יִנְתְּנוּן

Ezr 4:13

peal infinitive-construct construct

מִנְתַּן

Ezr 7:20