m. הִיא f. (pl. m.
הֵ֫מָּה,
הֵם; fem.
הֵ֫נָּה,
הֵן [the latter only with prefixes]; see these words),
pron. of the 3rd ps. sing.,
he, she, used also (in both genders) for the neuter, it, Lat.
is, ea,
id. (The א is not orthographic merely, but radical, being written on Moab. and Ph. inscriptions, though dropped in some of the later dialects. [In Heb. only
Jeremiah 29:23 Kt, and in the prn.
אֱלִיהוּ.] Moab. (MI
6.27) and Ph. (often)
הא; Aramaic of Zinjirli
הא, once
הו (DHM
Inschr. von Sendschirli 55); 𝔗
הוּא,
הִיא, Syriac
ܗܽܘ,
ܗܺܝ Arabic
هُوَ,
هِىَ (for
hūʾa, hīʾa, W
SG 104); Ethiopic ውእቱ, ይእቲ
weʾĕtū, yeʾĕtī; perhaps also Assyrian
šû, šî,
himself, herself, suff.
s̆u, ši, cf. demonstr.
šuatu, šiati (v. Kraetzschmar
BAS i. 383 & reff., W
SG 98, 105 Dl
§ 55 b, 57). In the Pent.,
הוא is of common gender, the fem. form
הִיא occurring only 11 times, viz.
Genesis 14:2;
Genesis 20:5;
Genesis 38:25 (v. Mass here),
Leviticus 11:39;
Leviticus 13:10,
Leviticus 13:21;
Leviticus 16:31;
Leviticus 20:17;
Leviticus 21:9 Numbers 5:13,
Numbers 5:14. The punctuators, however, sought to assimilate the usage of the Pent. to that of the rest of the OT, and accordingly wherever
הוא was construed as a fem. pointed it
הִוא (as a
Qrê perpetuum). Outside the Pent. the same Qrê occurs
I Kings 17:15 Isaiah 30:33 Job 31:11—prob. for the sake of removing gramm. anomalies: five instances of the converse change, viz. of
היא to be read as
הוּא, occur for a similar reason,
I Kings 17:15 (
וַתֹּאכַל הוּא־וָהִיא to be read as
וַתֹּאכַל הִיא־וָהוּא, on account of the fem. verb)
Psalms 73:16 Job 31:11 (
כי הוא זמה והיא עָוֹן פלילים to be read as
כי היא זמה והוא עון פלילים),
Ecclesiastes 5:8 I Chronicles 29:16. The origin of the peculiarity in the Pent. is uncertain. It can hardly be a real archaism: for the fact that Arabic, Aramaic, & Ethiopic have distinct forms for masc. & fem. shews that both must have formed part of the original Semitic stock, and consequently of Hebrew as well, from its earliest existence as an independent language. Nor is the peculiarity confined to the Pent.: in the ms. of the Later Prophets, of a.d. 916, now at S. Petersburg, published in facsimile by Strack (1876), the fem. occurs written
הוא (see the passages cited in the
Adnotationes Criticae, p. 026). In Ph. both masc. and fem. ar alike written
הא (CIS i. 1:9
מלך צדק הא, 1:13
מלאכת הא, 3:19
אדם הא, l:11
ממלכת הא, 93:2; 94:2), though naturally this would be
read as
hu’ or
hi’ as occasion required. Hence, as 𝔊 shews that in the older Heb. MSS. the
scriptio plena was not yet generally introduced, it is prob. that originally
הא was written for both genders in Hebrew likewise, and that the epicene
הוא in the Pent. originated at a comparatively late epoch in the transmission of the text—perhaps in connexion with the assumption, which is partly borne out by facts (cf. De
ZKWL 1880, pp. 393–399), that in the older language fem. forms were more sparingly used than subsequently.
)In usage
הוּא (f.
הִיא; pl.
הֵ֫מָּה,
הֵם,
הֵ֫נָּה: v.
הֵ֫מָּה is