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(BA) ʔb
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9 August 2022 Navigate 'up to the Hebrew index: index-hebrew.

ʔb is the spelling of two different words in the Hebrew Bible, which can be distinguished by their vocalization. When it is av, that's a father, when it is ev, that's a word that has to do with greenness or freshness.

The information below is paraphrased from BDB.

father
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BDB categorizes ʔab, "father", under the stem ʔbh II., which it considers may not really have existed. The word means both "father" in the literal sense, and is used in a variety of figurative applications -- a bit like it is in English.

freshness
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While ʔab is very common, the much less common ʔeb only appears in two places. In Job 8:12, there is the phrase ʕodennu beʔibbo, while yet in its freshness. And in Song 6:11, lirʔot beʔibbei hannaḥal, to see the green shoots of the valley.

So strictly speaking, the dictionary for ʔeb doesn't appear at all. Neither does the hypothetical root ʔbb from which BDB derives it.

Sources
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