In Hebrew the 6th letter of the alphabet is ו (pronounced ‘waw’ and makes the sound of ‘w’ as in way)[1]. As you can see from the chart below, the early Hebrew pictograph for ו (waw) was a hook, nail or tent peg.
The meaning of ו (waw) is derived from this picture: to add, secure or hook. Like a tent peg ו (waw) grammatically connects other things together. Frequently ו (waw) is added as a prefix to a word in Hebrew to form a conjunction.[2] The challenge for translating Hebrew is that this conjunction is ubiquitous and is used very flexibly. Imagine if English had only one word to mean “so”, “now”, “then”, “furthermore”, “and” and “but”. It would make it really easy to write sentences, but hard to understand them because the reader has to decide from context which meaning is intended.
Here is an example where there are four ו (waw) conjunctions used in one verse (in bold):
Gen 2:20 Westminster Leningrad Codex
וַיִּקְרָ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם שֵׁמֹ֗ות לְכָל־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּלְעֹ֣וף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּלְכֹ֖ל חַיַּ֣ת
of living-things all-to-and/but the-(dual)heavens/air birds-to-and/but the-beasts-of-all-to names the-man called/proclaimed-so
לֹֽא־מָצָ֥א עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדֹּֽו׃ וּלְאָדָ֕ם הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה
to-him-opposite facing/complementary-like a helper was-found-not to-Adam-and/but the-fields
In my word-for-word translation under the Hebrew I have chosen to translate the ו waw as “and/but” to indicate both the conjunction and disjunctive possibilities. Here are two modern translations: [3]
- Gen 2:20 (NIV) So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam[the man] no suitable helper was found.
- Gen 2:20 (NASB) The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky[heavens], and to every beast of the field, but for Adam [man] there was not found a helper suitable for [corresponding to] him.
Both have translated three out of the four conjunctions (but a different choice of which three!). In English often we omit conjunctions in comma delimited lists, or where the author feels they are unnecessary. I like this illustration because the NIV translation gives three different English words to translate the ו prefix: “so”, “and” and “but”.
WAW CONJUCTION “AND vs BUT”
There are many places in scripture where the meaning differs significantly if you translate ו (waw) with a disjunctive “but” rather than a conjunctive “and”. Here is one that I ran into this week:
Proverbs 12:16
אֱוִ֗יל בַּ֭יֹּום יִוָּדַ֣ע כַּעְסֹ֑ו
His-wrath/anger/vexation is-making-known/is-being-recognized day-in/with/by a-fool
וְכֹסֶ֖ה קָלֹ֣ון עָרֽוּם׃
Crafty/clever/shrewd/sly shame/dishonor hiding/concealing and/but
Here are two possible translations:
Proverbs 12:16 (DCB) A fool on that day is making known his wrath, but hiding dishonor is shrewd.
Proverbs 12:16 (DCB) Daily a fool is making known his wrath and hiding dishonor (which) is shrewd.
As you can see, two reasonable translations can be made depending on the choice of “but” or “and” for the ו (waw) conjunction. This happens quite often in the scriptures. A translator is forced to make a choice. In rabbinical literature sometimes you can find long discussions about which of the possible readings are favored and why they are preferred.
The participle form of the verb כֹסֶ֖ה should be translated “concealing or hiding”. Because it is a participle the lack of an express subject complicates the translation. I find it very helpful to consider the word picture in trying to extract the meaning. כֹסֶ֖ה (co seh) means to clothe or plump by filling in the hollows. The word picture for קָלֹ֣ון (ca lon) is being of little weight, “light”, as opposed to having weight and significance; being “heavy” is how Hebrew expresses honor כָּבַד (ca bad). עָרֽוּם (arum) is the word we are translating “shrewd” and it is used of the serpent in Genesis 3:1. The literal word picture is to “make bare” or “smooth” (like a serpent). It’s meaning is derived from this as cunning, shrewd, slick, crafty or wily.
The picture is of a snake slithering away. So together the word picture is smoothly escaping an offense by adding weight (either clothing or filler) to something that is otherwise too light. To me the image is of a slick talker who gets out of an insult to someone by stroking their ego with effusive (and likely dishonest) words of praise.
I also find it helpful to look at the Greek translation of the Hebrew for insight into how Rabbi’s understood the scripture (before the time of Christ):
Proverbs 12:16 (LXX)
ἄφρων αὐθημερὸν ἐξαγγέλλει ὀργὴν αὐτοῦ, κρύπτει δὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀτιμίαν άνήρ πανοῦργος.
Fool/unthinking brute daily is making known anger his, is concealing/secreting but/and the his dishonor man sly
Proverbs 12:16 (DCB from Greek) A lunkhead daily makes his anger known, but the sly man is concealing dishonor.
Sadly Greek has the same problem as Hebrew in that the conjunction δὲ also can mean either “and” or “but”. The Septuagint (LXX) Greek is helpful because “sly man” is nominative in Greek, telling us that the sly man is concealing the dishonor. This makes the disjunctive conjunction “but” seem a better choice to contrast the behavior of the “sly man” with the “fool”. It is also interesting that the Greek αὐθημερὸν means “daily” rather than “immediately”.
Thus, considering these factors, I suggest the following translation:
Proverbs 12:16 (DCB) A fool is daily making known his wrath, but a wily man is hiding dishonor.
I like wily, because it has a sort of “slimy” feel in English. Being wily is not necessarily a good thing, but it is preferred to being a fool.
Now let’s compare two modern translations:
Prov 12:16 (NIV) Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult.
Prov 12:16 (NASB) A fool’s anger is known at once, But a prudent man conceals dishonor.
It is good to see that we have converged upon similar translations, though, for the reasons given above, I am not too comfortable translating עָרֽוּם (arum) as “prudent”. The NIV makes the application very straightforward, but also feels far more narrow than the Hebrew. The NASB captures the ambiguity of whose dishonor is being concealed, consistent with the Hebrew. Both translations choose “at once” rather than the concept of “daily” found in the Septuagint.
I think it is wise to ask, should I hide shame and dishonor? In general, I think it depends if it is your shame or someone else’s. When I conceal your dishonor, it is generally a good thing. That is called covering over another’s sins:
- 1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.
However, when I conceal my sin, it generally festers and gets worse (Prov 28:13, Job 31:33). Jesus teaches us that the wise thing to do is to confess our sins one to another so we will be healed (James 5:16). And we certainly aren’t to parade our sin like Sodom (Isaiah 3:9).
Okay, but is it desirable to be shrewd or not? In general the serpent, the devil, is not exactly someone we want to emulate! But Jesus did say:
Matt 10:16b
“γίνεσθε οὖν φρόνιμοι ὡς οἱ ὄφεις καὶ ἀκέραιοι ὡς αἱ περιστεραί.”
Be therefore thinking/sagacious as the serpents and innocent/blameless/harmless as the doves
Here are two translations:
Matt 10:16b (DCB mine) “be therefore sharp-minded as serpents and innocent as doves”
Matt 10:16b (NIV) “so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
The word φρόνιμοι is the word for thinking deeply and critically. Here the NIV translated it “shrewd”. Interestingly, it is the same root word used for the fool in Prov 12:16 “ἄφρων”. The leading “ἄ” makes it “one who lacks” thinking. Jesus is saying literally to be the opposite of the fool, like the serpent who is crafty in intellect and wit, while also remaining innocent and blameless. This last part is the key. The innocent does not conceal his own guilt.
WAW CONSECUTIVE
There is one more important use of the ו (waw). When it is prefixed to a verb it can be either a normal conjunction or a “waw consecutive”. The waw consecutive is a special use that is typically found in narratives or poetry primarily to indicate consecutive past actions that happen sequentially. It is one of the few “time” indicators in Hebrew. In English for a sequence of past actions we might say: “First I turned on the computer, then I opened the word processor, and then I started typing…”[4] The waw consecutive serves this purpose in Hebrew. Typically a sentence starts with an ordinary perfect verb, followed by a series of waw consecutive prefixed to imperfect verbs. The use of a “waw consecutive” prefix thus converts the aspect of those imperfect (ongoing action) verbs to perfect (completed action) verbs. Hence some grammars call this a “waw conversive”. Here is an example from scripture:
Gen 4:1a
וְהָ֣אָדָ֔ם יָדַ֖ע אֶת־חַוָּ֣ה אִשְׁתֹּ֑ו וַתַּ֙הַר֙ וַתֵּ֣לֶד אֶת־קַ֔יִן
Cain bore-and-then conceived-and-then his-wife/woman Eve “knew” the-man-and/but
Here are two possible translations:
Gen 4:1a (NIV) Adam [the man] made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.
Gen 4:1a (BBH[5]) And Adam knew Eve his wife, and then she conceived, and then she bore Cain.
This second translation from the Hebrew textbook emphasizes the consecutive nature of the Hebrew construction. Notice also that the imperfect verbs “was conceiving” and “was birthing” have been converted to the past tense perfect forms (“conceived” and “bore”) by the ו (waw) prefix.
One way Hebrew unambiguously identifies a past tense narrative sequence is by starting with the waw conversive prefix upon the verb “to live/be/exist”: וַיְהִ֗י (wa ye hi) meaning “and it came to pass”:
Gen 25:11a “It came about after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac;”
This is very helpful for a language which does not have past, present, and future forms of verbs. Likewise the temporal modifier יְהָיָה (we ha yah) meaning “and it will come to pass” proceeds future tense narrative sequences. These are constructed using the consecutive perfect construction with a Waw consecutive prefix.
So if we return to the verse we started with:
Gen 2:20 Westminster Leningrad Codex
וַיִּקְרָ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם שֵׁמֹ֗ות לְכָל־הַבְּהֵמָה֙ וּלְעֹ֣וף הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּלְכֹ֖ל חַיַּ֣ת
of living-things all-to-and/but the-(dual)heavens/air birds-to-and/but the-beasts-of-all-to names the-man called/proclaimed-so
לֹֽא־מָצָ֥א עֵ֖זֶר כְּנֶגְדֹּֽו׃ וּלְאָדָ֕ם הַשָּׂדֶ֑ה
to-him-opposite facing/complementary-like a helper was-found-not to-Adam-and/but the-fields
Even though the verb קָרָא (qa ra) “to proclaim/call/read” is in a 3rd person masculine singular imperfect form (יִקְרָא) (yi qeh ra) and would normally be translated “the man was calling”, because of the waw consecutive prefix (וַיִּקְרָ֨א) (way yi qeh ra) the verb is converted to the perfect aspect and is usually translated in the past tense (“so the man called”) or in the present perfect tense (“so the man has called”).
There are two possible forms with a ו waw prefix which only differ by the vowel pointing on the prefix. The first (with the underline vowel called a pathach) is a ו waw consecutive, the second (with the two vertical dots is called a shewa) is a regular ו waw conjunction:
וַיִּקְרָ֨א (way yi qeh ra) so the man called / has called (imperfect converted to perfect)
וְיִּקְרָ֨א (wey yi qeh ra) and/but the man was calling / is calling / will be calling (imperfect)
Unfortunately, the original text of the Bible did not have any vowel pointing. These vowel letters were added between 300-1000 AD, principally by the Masorites. Here is what the text would have looked like originally:
Gen 2:20
ויקרא האדם שמות לכל־הבהמה ולעוף השמים ולכל חית
השדה ולאדם לא־מצא עזר כנגדו׃
The author of the first word (bold) could have intended either of the two possible vowel pointings (above) and thus any of the translations I have suggested there.
I hope you begin to see the many challenging possibilities. Thankfully there are thousands of years of commentary from native Hebrew speakers available. But at the end of the day, as the apostle Paul tried to explain, spiritual things are discerned spiritually by those who have the Spirit of God and the Mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16) We have to trust that the Spirit of God, when we pray and read his word in sincerity, will guide us into all truth, as he promises (John 16:13). Learning Hebrew sure opens your eyes to more possibilities, though.
[1] Pratico and Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew, pg 7. As you can see from this chart from the ancient Hebrew research center, this is one way that modern Hebrew pronunciation differs from biblical Hebrew. In modern Hebrew the 6th letter ו is pronounced ‘vav’ and makes the sound of a ‘v’ as in vine.
[2] “The Hebrew Imperfect verbal form occurs 15,966 times in the Hebrew Bible. The consecutive Imperfect (Imperfect with a Waw Consecutive) occurs 15,034 times.” Ibid. footnote pg 195.
[3] I have included the footnotes from the NIV and NASB in square brackets.
[4] Note that in general a sequence of imperfect verbs could indicate a past, present or future sequence of actions: “First I will put on my seatbelt, then I will check the gas, then set the mirrors, and finally I will turn the ignition key…” For more details see my post: Hebrew Tenses: Language of an Eternal Being – no Past, Present and Future (link https://davidboris.wordpress.com/2020/01/29/hebrew-tenses-language-of-an-eternal-being-no-past-present-and-future/)
[5] Pratico and Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew, pg 199.
Atheist to Elder 
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