StrongerBible

anash

עָנַשׁ

HebrewH6064fine, punish, ...

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 21:22 (2×)Deu 22:192Ch 36:3Pro 17:26Pro 21:11Pro 22:3Pro 27:12Amo 2:8
Root family
Word studyah-NAHSHverb

What anash means

to impose a payment on a wrongdoer as his penalty, or to be made to pay one

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

Almost every time this word appears, money changes hands. It belongs to Israel's courts, where a man who had done real damage to someone else was ordered to hand over a fixed sum, and the sum went to the person he had wronged rather than into any public treasury. Deuteronomy 22:19 even names the figure: a hundred pieces of silver, paid to the father of the girl the man had slandered. Proverbs 17:26 assumes the same practice from the other side, warning that making an innocent person pay is a wrong of its own.

From there the word reaches in two directions. A stronger power can lay a payment on a whole country, as Pharaoh Neco does to Judah in 2 Chronicles 36:3. And the payment can be one that nobody assessed: in Proverbs 22:3 the naive walk straight into trouble and pay for it. What holds these uses together is not a courtroom but a cost, since in each case someone ends up poorer for what he did.

Hebrew has a matching noun for the sum itself (עֹנֶשׁ), so the two divide the work neatly: this verb is the imposing, that noun is the amount owed. Notice also what the word does not mean. It is not correction aimed at improving a person, which is the business of words for training and discipline (יָסַר). Nobody here is being taught a lesson for his own good; a debt is being settled.

Nuances

1ato fine someone a set sum as the sentence in a legal case
TranslatabilityDirect
Exo 21:22 (2×)Deu 22:19Pro 17:26Pro 21:11
1bto lay a payment on a whole territory, the way a conquering king demands silver and gold
2Ch 36:3
1cthose who have been made to pay: people under a fine, whose goods have been taken from them
Amo 2:8
1dto pay for it: to bear the cost that a reckless choice brings on
Pro 22:3Pro 27:12

What scholars say about anash

The lexica agree that the root denotes the imposition of a monetary penalty. BDB divides the qal into "fine" (Deuteronomy 22:19; Proverbs 17:26, with the infinitive absolute at Exodus 21:22) and "impose a fine or tribute upon" (2 Chronicles 36:3), lists the passive participle of Amos 2:8 as a substantive ("those fined"), and treats the niphal as the corresponding passive at Exodus 21:22 and Proverbs 22:3; 27:12. HALOT and DCH follow the same division, HALOT rendering the Chronicles use as the imposition of tribute. The verb stands close to the noun עֹנֶשׁ (2 Kings 23:33; Proverbs 19:19) and to Aramaic עֲנָשׁ, the confiscation of property at Ezra 7:26, and its distribution is almost wholly legal and wisdom material. Waltke reads the penalty of Proverbs 21:11 as judicial discipline of the scoffer without pressing a monetary sense, while the niphal of Proverbs 22:3 and 27:12 is normally taken as bearing loss rather than being sentenced. On Exodus 21:22 the fine itself is uncontroversial: the long dispute in that verse turns on אָסוֹן and on who suffers the harm, not on this verb. Amos 2:8 is the one lexically debated occurrence, where the participle names those who have been fined and commentators differ over whether the wine was seized from them directly or bought with the proceeds of such exactions.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. עָנַשׁlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. ענשlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. ענשlexicon
  • TWOT, s.v. ענשtheological-dictionary
  • Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 15-31, NICOT (Eerdmans, 2005)commentary
  • Shalom M. Paul, Amos, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1991)commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1996)commentary
  • William H. C. Propp, Exodus 19-40, Anchor Yale Bible (Yale University Press, 2006)commentary

All attested forms of עָנַשׁ

qal infinitive-construct construct

עֲנוֹשׁ, עְנָשׁ

Pro 17:26, Pro 21:11

m p absolute

עֲנוּשִׁים

Amo 2:8

niphal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְנֶעֱנָשׁוּ

Pro 22:3

niphal imperfect 3ms

יֵעָנֵשׁ

Exo 21:22

niphal perfect 3cp

נֶעֱנָשׁוּ

Pro 27:12

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיַּעֲנֹשׁ

2Ch 36:3

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְעָנְשׁוּ

Deu 22:19

qal infinitive-absolute absolute

עָנוֹשׁ

Exo 21:22