Aramaic word · H2939

טְעֵם

yeta'amun

to feed

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament. ·

What it means

(P'al) to feed, cause to eat

Aramaic of ta.am (טָעַם "to taste" H2938)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Where it appears

Daniel · 3
  1. Daniel 4:25 יְטַֽעֲמ֗וּן they will feed

    You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.

    Here: An intensive-causative form, "they will make you eat / feed you". The same root gives ṭeʿēm, "decree, command", the word for royal orders in Daniel. The king who issued decrees is now fed fodder.

  2. Daniel 4:32 יְטַעֲמ֔וּן they will feed

    You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.”

    Here: 'They will make you eat.' The verb form means causing someone to eat. He does not choose this diet; it is imposed on him. The unnamed plural 'they' appears again.

  3. Daniel 5:21 יְטַ֣עֲמוּנֵּ֔הּ they fed him

    He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.

    Here: 'They would make him taste/eat', again an impersonal 'they'. The verb form, used in past narration, suggests an ongoing state: this was his steady diet. The root ṭʿm ('taste') also appears in 5:2, where Belshazzar drinks 'under the taste of the wine', which may be a deliberate echo.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.