Hebrew word · H8376

תָּאָה

teta'u

to mark

'To mark out, trace, delimit.' The verb occurs only in Numbers 34:7 and 34:8. BDB and HALOT both give the sense 'mark out (a boundary)'. Some lexicographers connect it with the root ʾwh, which appears in verse 10, 'you shall mark out for yourselves (wehitʾawitem) the eastern border'.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

(Piel) to mark out, point out

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 Numbers 34:8

Range of meaning

'To mark out, trace, delimit.' The verb occurs only in Numbers 34:7 and 34:8. BDB and HALOT both give the sense 'mark out (a boundary)'. Some lexicographers connect it with the root ʾwh, which appears in verse 10, 'you shall mark out for yourselves (wehitʾawitem) the eastern border'.

Against the English

KJV has 'point out [your border]', with the word 'border' added. WEB and YLT have 'mark out', which is accurate. BSB drops the verb and just lists the route ('and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath'). ESV has 'draw a line', which catches the surveying sense well.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb is confined to this passage. Its meaning comes from context and from the parallel in verse 10.

Where it appears

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 34:7 תְּתָא֥וּ you will mark out

    Your northern border will run from the Great Sea directly to Mount Hor,

  2. Numbers 34:8 תְּתָא֖וּ you will mark out

    and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extend to Zedad,

    Here: A rare verb found only here and in verse 7. Its sense is to trace or plot a line, as a surveyor does. The 'you' is plural: Israel as a people is told to fix its own boundary line from point to point.

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