Job 20:16:4Job.20.16.W4TAB
לְשׁ֣וֹן
leshon
“the tongue of”
- Transliteration
- le-SHON
- Extended
- leh-SHOHN
- IPA
- /ləˈʃoːn/
Meaning by language
- English
- the tongue of
Hebrew · tap a syllable to hear it
Alphabet Analysis
| Lamed | l as in law | |
| Sheva | vocal sheva — a short 'e' (ə), begins a syllable | |
| Shin | shin with right dot; sin with left dot | |
| Vav | v as in vine; marks long ō / ū | |
| Holem | long 'oh' as in go | |
| Nun Sofit | final form of Nun — at word end |
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The word
Word in context
- word
le-SHON
- phraseyour reading level
le-SHON e-fe-A
- clause
ta-ha-re-GE-hu le-SHON e-fe-A
- sentence
rosh-pe-ta-NIM yi-NAK ta-ha-re-GE-hu le-SHON e-fe-A
Exegesis
The following imperfect tahargehu {תַּֽ֝הַרְגֵ֗הוּ | tahargēhû} ‘she will kill him’ is marked as feminine singular, aligning syntactically with the feminine subject leshon {לְשׁוֹן | ləšôn} ‘tongue,’ even though the referent is the snake; this agreement heightens the personified agency of the “tongue.”
The construct chain leshon efeh {לְשׁוֹן אֶפְעֶה | ləšôn ʾepʿeh} ‘tongue of a viper’ uses a body-part term to depict the fatal strike; in Hebrew imagery, the “tongue” can stand for the snake’s venom-delivering attack. English can preserve the metaphor (“tongue”) in a formal rendering, while a dynamic rendering may express the implied mechanism (“fangs”) without changing the clause’s assertion that the snake’s attack results in death.
Root and etymology
consonantslamed–shin–nun
“tongue”
In context — Job 20:16
He will suck the poison of serpents ; the tongue of a viper will kill him.
About this coordinate
Job 20:16:4 is a BCV:P reference — Book · Chapter · Verse · Word Position. It addresses word 4 of Job 20:16, so the Hebrew word לְשׁ֣וֹן (leshon) can be cited, linked and studied at exactly this position rather than somewhere in the verse. In the Biblical Knowledge Coordinate System the same position is written Job.20.16.W4, which extends further down to each syllable (Job.20.16.W4.S1) and character.