Hebrew word · H541

אָמַן

ta'aminu

to turn right

Rare verbs built from the nouns 'right hand' (yamin) and 'left hand' (smol): 'go or turn right,' 'go or turn left.' They occur only a handful of times (Gen 13:9; 2 Sam 14:19; Ezek 21:16; 1 Chr 12:2).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament.

What it means

(Hiphil) to take the right hand, to turn right, choose to the right, go to the right, use the right hand

Another spelling of ya.man (יָמַן "to go right" H3231)

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 Isaiah 30:21

Range of meaning

Rare verbs built from the nouns 'right hand' (yamin) and 'left hand' (smol): 'go or turn right,' 'go or turn left.' They occur only a handful of times (Gen 13:9; 2 Sam 14:19; Ezek 21:16; 1 Chr 12:2).

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT have 'when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.' BSB and NIV have 'whether you turn to the right or to the left.' The 'whether' renderings can suggest the voice speaks at every junction, whichever way you go. The Hebrew 'when' fits better with turning off the road.

How it drifted

The 'whether… or' phrasing in modern versions, plus the decision-making reading of the verse, turns right and left into two options to choose between, with God naming the correct one.

Used elsewhere in the period

'Turning aside to the right or to the left' is a fixed phrase in Deuteronomy and the history books for departing from God's instruction: Deut 5:32; 17:11, 20; 28:14; Josh 1:7; 23:6; 2 Kgs 22:2. Compare Prov 4:27.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 30:21 תַאֲמִ֖ינוּ you will go to [the] right

    And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

    Here: A verb built from yamin, 'right hand': 'you turn right.' It is spelled with an aleph, as also happens elsewhere (Gen 13:9; 2 Sam 14:19). The spelling makes it look identical to the 'you believe' of Isa 7:9. The meaning here is clearly directional.

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