the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Discussion must focus on the Hebrew text (including text criticism) and its ancient translations, not on archaeology, modern language translations, or theological controversies.
Forum rules
Members will observe the rules for respectful discourse at all times!
Please sign all posts with your first and last (family) name.
Danielkim
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 7:27 pm

the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by Danielkim »

Hello. I had a chance to watch a religious forum.

there one guest speaker mentioned about the word "fish" in jonah is not consistent in regards to sex of fish.

if I remember correct, he said the word "fish" in Jonah 1:17 is female but the word "fish" in jonah 2:1 is male. I would like to know if that is correct.

and if that between 2nd masculine and 3rd feminine(???)

יְמַ֤ן יְהוָה֙ דָּ֣ג גָּדֹ֔ול לִבְלֹ֖עַ אֶת־יֹונָ֑ה וַיְהִ֤י יֹונָה֙ בִּמְעֵ֣י הַדָּ֔ג שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יָמִ֖ים וּשְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה לֵילֹֽות׃ (Jonah 1:17)


יִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל יֹונָ֔ה אֶל־יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו מִמְּעֵ֖י הַדָּגָֽה׃( Jonah 2:1)

please help. thank you.
S_Walch
Posts: 343
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:41 pm

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by S_Walch »

It's actually the other way around ("fish" is male in 1:17, but female in 2:1), but no, it is correct that the fish is masculine in 1:17 (dag/דג), and then feminine in 2:1 (dagah/דגה).

Why a change of sex? Your guess is as good as mine. I'm going with scribal error.
Ste Walch
Jemoh66
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:03 pm

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by Jemoh66 »

Maybe the hey is directional, since the prayer originates from the belly of the well but makes its way to God's ears. This same idea is in ISHAH (she comes out of ISH); Eve was taken from Adam.

Jonathan Mohler
Jonathan E Mohler
Studying for a MA in Intercultural Studies
Baptist Bible Theological Seminary
User avatar
Kirk Lowery
Site Admin
Posts: 363
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:03 pm
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Contact:

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by Kirk Lowery »

I have moved this topic to the General Discussions forum.
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
B-Hebrew Site Administrator & Moderator
blog: https://blogs.emdros.org/eh
kwrandolph
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:51 am

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by kwrandolph »

Danielkim wrote:there one guest speaker mentioned about the word "fish" in jonah is not consistent in regards to sex of fish.
Not necessarily the sex of the fish, rather the gender of the noun. As mentioned earlier on another thread, the gender of some nouns can indicate meaning. Not always does the gender of the noun indicate the sex of the object.

Looking at “fish”, 19 times is it masculine, 15 times feminine, according to a concordance.
Danielkim wrote:if I remember correct, he said the word "fish" in Jonah 1:17 is female but the word "fish" in jonah 2:1 is male. I would like to know if that is correct.

יְמַ֤ן יְהוָה֙ דָּ֣ג גָּדֹ֔ול לִבְלֹ֖עַ אֶת־יֹונָ֑ה וַיְהִ֤י יֹונָה֙ בִּמְעֵ֣י הַדָּ֔ג שְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה יָמִ֖ים וּשְׁלֹשָׁ֥ה לֵילֹֽות׃ (Jonah 1:17)

יִּתְפַּלֵּ֣ל יֹונָ֔ה אֶל־יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו מִמְּעֵ֖י הַדָּגָֽה׃( Jonah 2:1)
Actually, Jonah 1:17 is masculine, 2:1 feminine.

These verses are not found among the DSS.

As for Jonah’s meaning, there are two options that I think of, I haven’t yet made a decision between them: the Heh in Jonah 2:1 indicates direction, towards, as he’s being swallowed, a second option is that Jonah considered “fish” as a generality, i.e. in the fish’s realm.

Karl W. Randolph.
Last edited by kwrandolph on Fri Dec 19, 2014 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
S_Walch
Posts: 343
Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 4:41 pm

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by S_Walch »

kwrandolph wrote:These verses are not found among the DSS.
Just a quick correction here Karl: The verses are actually found in the Manuscripts MurXII (Wadi Muraba'at Minor Prophets); 4QXIIa (although this manuscript only has the first 7 letters of 1:17); and in 8HevXIIgr (Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets).

Only Wadi Muraba'at has enough extant words to check this, to which even 2000 years ago, it's male in 1:17, and female in 2:1. :)
Ste Walch
kwrandolph
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:51 am

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by kwrandolph »

S_Walch wrote:
kwrandolph wrote:These verses are not found among the DSS.
Just a quick correction here Karl: The verses are actually found in the Manuscripts MurXII (Wadi Muraba'at Minor Prophets); 4QXIIa (although this manuscript only has the first 7 letters of 1:17); and in 8HevXIIgr (Nahal Hever Greek Minor Prophets).

Only Wadi Muraba'at has enough extant words to check this, to which even 2000 years ago, it's male in 1:17, and female in 2:1. :)
Thanks for the correction. I had downloaded The-Biblical-Qumran-Scrolls-Eugene-Charles-Ulrich.pdf which apparently doesn’t have this, so assumed that these verses were missing.

As for the meaning, I’m presently leaning towards the understanding that the feminine of 2:1 is a generality, so that its understanding would be “in a belly among the fishes” or something along that line.

Karl W. Randolph.
Jemoh66
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:03 pm

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by Jemoh66 »

kwrandolph wrote:As for the meaning, I’m presently leaning towards the understanding that the feminine of 2:1 is a generality, so that its understanding would be “in a belly among the fishes” or something along that line.
This would support the idea that Jonah sees the great fish as God's answer to his prayer. The great fish is YHWH's means of salvation. That is not so much "in a belly" but "from the heart of fishdom." But if he means from the belly of the fish, then I would go back to directionality, which is supported by Gen 2.23: "לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקֳחָה־ זֹּֽאת". Moses is basically playing on the directionality of the hey, and here the direction is not toward, but from/out of. Jonah points out that he prayed אֶל־ יְהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהָ֑יו מִמְּעֵ֖י הַדָּגָֽה, or from out of ... to. That being said, directionality and generality do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Jonathan Mohler
Jonathan E Mohler
Studying for a MA in Intercultural Studies
Baptist Bible Theological Seminary
kwrandolph
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:51 am

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by kwrandolph »

Jemoh66 wrote:…But if he means from the belly of the fish, then I would go back to directionality, which is supported by Gen 2.23: "לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקֳחָה־ זֹּֽאת".
I always understood this verse as referring to the sex of the subject.

While I mentioned other uses of the feminine gender of nouns, the most common use appears to be indicating the sex of the subject, e.g. נער and נערה or ילד and ילדה or איש and אשה.

Just my 2¢.

Karl W. Randolph.
Jemoh66
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:03 pm

Re: the Big Fish was male or female in Jonah 1:17,2:1?

Post by Jemoh66 »

kwrandolph wrote:
Jemoh66 wrote:…But if he means from the belly of the fish, then I would go back to directionality, which is supported by Gen 2.23: "לְזֹאת֙ יִקָּרֵ֣א אִשָּׁ֔ה כִּ֥י מֵאִ֖ישׁ לֻֽקֳחָה־ זֹּֽאת".
I always understood this verse as referring to the sex of the subject.

While I mentioned other uses of the feminine gender of nouns, the most common use appears to be indicating the sex of the subject, e.g. נער and נערה or ילד and ילדה or איש and אשה.

Just my 2¢.

Karl W. Randolph.
I don't think anyone questions whether Eve was female or not. But the sentence has nothing to do with her sex. Moses is simply playing on the Hebraic idea of directionality as represented by the hey; so he writes that she was called ISHAH because she was ME'ISH. The sentence would make no sense if it was about the sex of the woman. This does not mean that the -ah ending in ishah is not feminine.

Jonathan Mohler
Jonathan E Mohler
Studying for a MA in Intercultural Studies
Baptist Bible Theological Seminary
Post Reply