HEBREW · STEP 27
He gave to me: Follow the recipient
Distinguish who gives from who receives, and follow a short attached form back to the speaker.
In this lesson
Read the giving form
In הוּא אָמַר, hu a-MAR, hu identified the subject and amar reported the speaking. Keep that distinction between a subject and its action as you meet another verb.
na-TAN
He gave
- Nun with qamats gives na.
- Tav with patah and final nun gives tan.
- Read two syllables, na-TAN, with ordinary final stress.
The last letter is the familiar final nun. In our modern Israeli-style reading, undotted tav still gives t, as you learned in the Torah lesson. Its missing inside dot does not introduce a new consonant sound.
This particular verb form means he gave in the story we will read. It is third-person masculine singular, like amar. Its subject information concerns the giver, who performs the action, not necessarily the speaker reporting it.
1. Cover the aid and read נָתַן. Give its meaning, syllables, ordinary stress and final letter. Does undotted tav need a new sound in our model?
na-TAN, he gave here: two syllables with ordinary final stress. The final letter is final nun, giving n.
Tav remains t in the modern Israeli-style model already taught. The lack of a dot does not turn it into a newly taught th or s. This is one verb form, not the name of its giver.
A short word for the recipient
A recipient is the person receiving something. This next word can identify that person in a giving phrase.
li
To me
Lamed supplies l. Hiriq and the following helper yod supply i, as in machine. Read li, one syllable, not le-i or li-y. This is the hiriq-yod spelling you learned in ani, now following lamed.
A preposition expresses a relationship, such as English to. Li combines the to relationship with an attached pronoun ending that refers to the speaker. An attached ending is called a suffix; here the -i part supplies the me reference.
Learn the whole form li, not two separately written Hebrew words. Its yod still acts as a vowel helper in reading. This particular attached ending does not make every final yod mean me.
A man or woman can say li: it points to the person speaking. Compare familiar ani, I, with li, to me. They can refer to the same speaker but do different jobs. In this giving phrase, li identifies the speaker as recipient.
2. Read לִי and אֲנִי. Which means to me in the giving setting, and which is the subject pronoun I? Explain li’s yod in reading and its attached ending in meaning.
li, to me, identifies the speaker as recipient in this giving phrase. a-NI, I, is the familiar subject pronoun.
Li’s hiriq and helper yod write one i vowel; no extra y sound or syllable is added. The attached -i refers to the speaker. These forms can concern the same person without being interchangeable in a sentence. A final yod is not a universal me marker.
Read Ruth’s report in context
In the biblical book of Ruth, Boaz gives Ruth barley after their meeting at the threshing floor, a grain-processing area. Back with Naomi, her mother-in-law, Ruth reports the gift. The rest of verse 17 explains Boaz’s wish that Ruth not return to her mother-in-law empty-handed.
One reading detail matters before you try the phrase. By itself, our word model is na-TAN. In this verse, the biblical reading tradition stresses the first syllable: NA-tan LI. It is the same verb, still gave. Follow the stress shown for this excerpt.
נָתַן לִי
he gave to me
Read NA-tan LI, using our modern Israeli-style consonant and vowel sounds with this biblical excerpt’s stress. The full source’s chanting marks establish the stress pattern here. Those extra marks are omitted from the simplified line, so the aid supplies that information.
This is a particular source reading, not a rule that every verb before li moves its stress. The unchanged vowel points alone do not show the difference between the word model and this excerpt.
The English is a phrase excerpt too. The barley is named earlier in the verse, outside these two selected words. Neither a Hebrew word for barley nor an object word meaning it appears in our selection.
3. Read נָתַן לִי as the selected Ruth 3:17 phrase. How does the stress differ from the word model? Did the meaning change? Does every li phrase require this change?
NA-tan LI, he gave to me. The word model was na-TAN; this source places the stronger syllable on na.
The verb still means gave. This is a verified feature of this biblical excerpt, not a universal stress rule or a different tense caused by li. The simplified vowel points do not display the omitted chanting accent.
Keep the people’s roles distinct
The person speaking need not be the one performing the reported action. Work through Ruth’s scene before trying to reconstruct it.
- Giver: who performs the action?
- Boaz. Natan describes his giving; the story identifies him.
- Speaker and recipient: who says me?
- Ruth. Li points to her as the receiver in this report.
- Person addressed: who hears the report?
- Naomi. Ruth is speaking to her mother-in-law.
- Thing given: what is the gift?
- Barley, identified in the surrounding verse rather than in the selected phrase.
The Hebrew selection has no separate hu. The verb carries masculine singular subject information, and the context identifies Boaz. Ruth’s being the speaker does not make the verb mean I gave.
4. Reconstruct the scene: name the giver, speaker/recipient, person addressed and gift. Which does li identify? Does the selected Hebrew print a separate hu or the word for barley?
Boaz gave. Ruth is the speaker and recipient expressed by li. Naomi is addressed. Barley is the gift described in the surrounding verse.
The selected phrase contains no separate hu and no word for barley. Natan supplies the giver’s grammatical subject information; the story identifies Boaz. The speaker and the giver are different people.
Work through a gift, then try a new line
This section is constructed practice, not biblical quotation. Imagine a speaker receiving bread from a boy. Read this worked example with ordinary modern word-model stress:
hu na-TAN li LE-chem
He gave me bread.
- Hu identifies the giver.
- Natan reports the giving.
- Li identifies the speaker as recipient.
- Lechem names the thing given: bread.
English can say gave me bread rather than gave bread to me; the recipient relationship is the same. Here we use ordinary na-TAN. The source-specific NA-tan LI belongs to the Ruth excerpt; this constructed line does not claim a biblical chanting tradition.
Read before revealing
Constructed practice, not a biblical quotation. Read this new line before opening its answer.
הַבֵּן נָתַן לִי לֶחֶם
5. Read and translate the new line. Identify the giver, action, recipient expression and thing given. If li were omitted, would the remaining words identify the speaker as recipient?
ha-BEN na-TAN li LE-chem, “The son gave me bread.” Haben names the giver; natan reports giving; li identifies the speaker as recipient; lechem names the bread.
Without li, the remaining line would say the son gave bread. It would no longer explicitly identify the speaker as recipient. This is constructed practice, not Ruth’s source phrase, and its word-model stress is not an alternative transcription of Ruth’s accent.
Repair a mistaken reference
When several people appear in a scene, ask what the actual form expresses. Then use the context to identify its reference.
6. Repair these claims: “Because Ruth is speaking, natan must mean I gave”; “li means the barley because barley was given”; “every final yod means me.”
- Natan describes Boaz’s giving in Ruth’s report, not an action by the speaker.
- Li means to me, pointing to Ruth as receiver. Barley is the thing given, named outside the selected phrase.
- Li has a particular attached speaker-reference. Yod also has other taught reading roles. A final yod alone does not universally mean me.
Use the actual form and context, not the nearest name or thing.
Next session: retrieve both actions
Begin your next session with the models and answers closed. Reconstruct the selected Hebrew from these cues:
- Psalm 33:9: He spoke.
- Ruth 3:17: he gave to me.
Read each with its taught source stress. Identify the actor in each scene and the recipient in Ruth. Which excerpt prints a separate word for he, and how do the verb form and context identify the subject in the other? Write the points if possible, then compare.
7. Check both phrases, their source readings and their participants
- הוּא אָמַר, hu a-MAR, “He spoke.” The reference is to Hashem in Psalm 33.
- נָתַן לִי, NA-tan LI, he gave to me. Boaz is the giver; Ruth is the speaker and recipient.
Psalm’s selected clause prints hu explicitly. Ruth’s selected phrase does not: natan carries grammatical subject information, and context identifies the giver. Li identifies the recipient, not the actor or barley.
These are different source excerpts, not one combined sentence. Their verbs and context work together; the presence of a separate pronoun is not a prerequisite for following a subject.
If you try the task today, leave yourself a fresh attempt next session. Notice whether you needed help with the word, its stress, its job in the phrase or the person it refers to.
Explore the sources
Ruth 3 with surrounding English · Natan: form and meaning · Li among the preposition’s forms · Biblical stress changes, Gesenius’s Hebrew Grammar §29
Locate the two selected words in verse 17. Use the surrounding English to follow Ruth’s report. The other Hebrew forms and the dictionaries’ larger tables are further material, not a new decoding assignment.
Keep the action and its people together
You can now ask more than “What does this word mean?” Ask: What action is reported? Who performs it? Does the phrase identify someone receiving? Check what the Hebrew actually prints, then use the passage to follow its people.
Return to the role-and-action comparison if you need the noun/verb distinction, or building ani for hiriq-yod. Keep the ordinary natan model and Ruth’s source-specific stress labeled as you review.