beth

English translation: second letter of the Hebrew alphabet

19:56 Mar 9, 2004
Hebrew to English translations [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
Hebrew term or phrase: beth
i need to know because its a word from the bible that i don't know. Psalms 119. its one of the names of the different section.
nathan
English translation:second letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Explanation:
Without looking, I'm pretty sure that Psalm 119 is an acrostic, in which each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In English translations, the Hebrew letters are printed prior to each verse (i.e., aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, etc.)

Of course, "bet" also means "house of" (construct state) as in "bet yisrael" (House of Israel, i.e., the Jewish people collectively, in numerous prayers)
Selected response from:

Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 08:22
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +3second letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Robert Forstag
5two (second)
judithyf


  

Answers


8 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +3
second letter of the Hebrew alphabet


Explanation:
Without looking, I'm pretty sure that Psalm 119 is an acrostic, in which each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In English translations, the Hebrew letters are printed prior to each verse (i.e., aleph, bet, gimel, dalet, etc.)

Of course, "bet" also means "house of" (construct state) as in "bet yisrael" (House of Israel, i.e., the Jewish people collectively, in numerous prayers)

Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 08:22
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
Grading comment
Graded automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Eynat: Each set of 7-8 verses starts with a successive letter. The letter itself precedes each verse, not its name (bet is the name, not the letter). Nathan - can you specify the verse?
22 mins

agree  snatalieg
3 hrs

agree  Will Matter
4 hrs

agree  Simon Charass: Once one looks at the psalm knows the answer is correct.
30 days
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10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
two (second)


Explanation:
Hebrew letters are often used to represent numbers - ordinal or cardinal. Beth, as the second letter of the alphabet, is used here to denote the second verse of the Psalm.

judithyf
Local time: 15:22
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4
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