תָּנָה
ta.nah
to recount
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
ExploredThe Hebrew word תָּנָה (ta.nah) means "to recount." It falls within the semantic domain of Cognition & Perception, indicating its connection to thinking, remembering, or recalling information. The fact that this word only appears twice in the Bible suggests it is not a commonly used lexical item, implying its significance might lie in specific cultural or literary contexts. The two occurrences of this word might imply that its primary function is to describe acts of recounting or telling stories. Its presence in these limited contexts suggests that the word carries a specific, perhaps nuanced, meaning that distinguishes it from other Hebrew verbs of speaking or communicating. By focusing on this word's limited usage and its specific semantic field, we can glimpse an aspect of biblical thinking that emphasizes the importance of recalling, preserving, and sharing stories, perhaps indicating a value placed on oral tradition and communal memory. However, this conclusion remains an inference drawn from the data, and the word's meaning remains tied to its definition as a direct, literal action of recounting.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
2 total occurrences across the text
Far from the noise of archers, in the places of drawing water, there they will rehearse Yahweh’s righteous acts, the righteous acts of his rule in Israel. “Then Yahweh’s people went down to the gates.
Judges 11:40that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.