Dictionary:נָא/0

נָא

This page is a stub.
Please contact us if you would like to assist in its development.

נָא

Part of Speech
Occurrences	405
Possible Meanings	Please Now Raw
Related Words

Possible Meanings

The word נָא appears over 400 times in Tanakh. In almost all cases it means either please or now, and it is often ambiguous as to which of these meanings any given verse takes.¹ In at least one verse, a third meaning has been suggested, raw or broken.

1. Please

• Biblical verses – The vast majority of cases can easily sustain this meaning. In several instances, its appearance together with the word עַתָּה would seem to eliminate the alternate possibility of explaining נָא as now, as this would create a redundancy.²
• Additional data –

2. Now

• Biblical verses – Possibly Bereshit 12:11, 18:21, 27:2, Shemot 3:3, 11:2, Bemidbar 12:13, 20:10, Eikhah 5:16, and many others. In each of these verses, the context might argue against an understanding of please.
• Additional data –

3. Raw

• Biblical verses – Possibly Bereshit 25:30, Shemot 12:9.
• Additional data –

Disputed Cases

Bereshit 12:11

• Please – As Avram is simply stating a fact, it would seem difficult to understand the phrase as a plea, "Please, behold, I know you are beautiful." BDB, though suggests, that the phrase הִנֵּה נָא is used when one is "craving a favourable consideration of the fact pointed to by הִנֵּה, and of the request founded upon it (with which נא is often repeated)." According to this, Avram is asking that Sarai please pay attention to this fact as a request is predicated upon it.
• Now – Bava Batra 16a, Tanchuma (Warsaw) Lekh Lekha 5, Rashi, Radak. Although all of these commentators agree that the word נָא means now, not all agree in their understanding of the verse itself. While the Gemara, Midrash and Rashi suggest that until this point Avram had never recognized Sarai's beauty (and only now does he see it), Radak suggests that this is simply דרך הלשון, pointing to other similar cases of "הִנֵּה נָא" which aren't trying to emphasize immediacy.³
• Figure of speech – R. Saadia.⁴

Bereshit 25:30

• Please – this is the common understanding.
• Raw – R. Moshe Leib Shachor⁵ explains that Esav is asking for the lentils while they are still only partially cooked.⁶
• Now – One could alternatively suggest that Esav is requesting to eat the lentils now i.e. immediately.

Bereshit 27:2

• Please – Rashbam.
• Now – Ibn Ezra.

Shemot 11:2

• Please – Bavli Berakhot 9a, Rashi, Ran, R. Hirsch.⁷
• Now – Ibn Janach Sefer HaShorashim s.v. "נא", Ibn Ezra Bereshit 12:11 and Short Commentary Shemot 11:2, R"Y Bekhor Shor, R. Avraham b. HaRambam Bereshit 48:9 and Shemot 11:2 (possibly citing R. Saadia).

Shemot 12:9

• Please – Chizkuni.
• Raw – Targum Onkelos, Dunash, Ibn Janach, Rashi, and others. Dunash suggests that the word is related to the Arabic.
• Now – Ibn Ezra.⁸
• Broken – Machberet Menachem. Menachem connects נָא to the verb הניא which means to break.⁹

Bemidbar 12:13

• Please – Many assume that the double "נָא" is simply a sign of great submissiveness before Hashem.
• Now – R. Yonah ibn Janach suggests that the first "נָא" of the verse means please, while the second means now. Moshe is not simply being polite, but rather asking that Hashem save Miriam right away.¹⁰

Semantic Evolution

Intra-Biblical

Rabbinic Hebrew

Modern Hebrew

¹ It is perhaps simply a form of entreaty or urging which, depending on context, can be expressed by now or please.

² See Bereshit 44:33, 50:5,17, Shemot 3:18, 10:17, 33:13 and many others.

³ Radak is, in effect, taking the possibility raised below, that in some cases the word נָא is simply a figure of speech. However, instead of suggesting that it holds no meaning of its own, he explicitly says that the words mean "behold now," the connotation of which is simply, "behold."

⁴ R. Saadia translates the verse as "Behold, I know" ignoring the word "נָא".

⁵ In his commentary אבני שהם לתורה, ירושלים, תשכ"ח, עמ' נט (also cited by Shelomo Malkiel in his article, ‏"משמעות לא רגילה למילים רגילות", מגדים י' (תש"נ): 93).

⁶ His comments are motivated by the incongruity of a famished Esav saying "please" with Esav's general behavior. He additionally notes that red lentils, when cooked, turn brown and would no longer be referred to as "הָאָדֹם הָאָדֹם הַזֶּה". However, see אדם for the possibility that the word, in general, can refer also to the color brown.

⁷ These exegetes need to explain why Hashem would need to plead with the Children of Israel to take gold and silver from the Egyptians. For elaboration, see Reparations and Despoiling Egypt.

⁸ The verse is thus read, "Do not eat from it (as it is) now" (i.e. raw).

⁹ If so, the verse might be warning against eating the sheep if its bones are broken (similar to the ensuing command of "וְעֶצֶם לֹא תִשְׁבְּרוּ בוֹ"). Dunash argues that the command is then redundant, and additionally, that הניא means to prevent rather than break. R. Binyamin, in his notes on R"Y Kimhi's Sefer HaGalui (p.16), upholds Menahem's definition of broken by proposing that the verse is commanding not to eat the sheep with broken limbs, but rather "רֹאשׁוֹ עַל כְּרָעָיו וְעַל קִרְבּוֹ".

¹⁰ Other verses in which the word נָא similarly appears twice include Bereshit 16:2, 18:3, 19:28, 50:4 and others. In these, too, one might suggest a similar split in meaning.