Hebrew word · H5091

נָהָה

neheh

to wail

To wail or lament loudly, especially in formal mourning. Its noun relatives (nəhî, 'wailing') belong to funeral and disaster laments.

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

What it means

1) to wail, lament

1a) (Qal) to wail, lament

1b) (Niphal) to go mourning after

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

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 32:18

Range of meaning

To wail or lament loudly, especially in formal mourning. Its noun relatives (nəhî, 'wailing') belong to funeral and disaster laments.

Against the English

'Wail' (KJV, BSB, WEB, YLT, ESV, NIV) is accurate. What English cannot carry is that this is a ritual act, the opening of a funeral, not just an outburst of feeling.

Used elsewhere in the period

Rare. Micah 2:4 has the doubled 'they will wail a wailing' (nāhāh nəhî) in a taunt-lament, and nəhî appears in Jeremiah 9:10, 18–20 for the dirge taught to professional women mourners. The setting resembles the ANE funeral lament performed by hired women.

Where it appears

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 7:2 וַיִּנָּה֛וּ and they mourned

    And from that day a long time passed, twenty years in all, as the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim. And all the house of Israel mournfully sought the LORD.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 32:18 נְהֵ֛ה wail

    “Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:

    Here: A command: 'wail!' A rare verb for loud mourning over the dead (compare Micah 2:4). The prophet is told to sing a funeral song over Egypt before Egypt has fallen.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 2:4 וְנָהָ֨ה and he will wail

    In that day they will take up a proverb against you and taunt you with this bitter lamentation: ‘We are utterly ruined! He has changed the portion of my people. How He has removed it from me! He has allotted our fields to traitors.’”

    Here: The verb for loud, ritual mourning, the kind done at a funeral. Its sound begins a chain: nāhâ, nəhî, nihyâ.

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