Uh … (Gen 12:11–12)
Down to Egypt
11 “Look … uh … I know you are a good-looking woman.
הִנֵּה־נָ֣א יָדַ֔עְתִּי כִּ֛י אִשָּׁ֥ה יְפַת־מַרְאֶ֖ה אָֽתְּ׃
I promised last time that we would get started with my translation of נא na as “… uh …,” and here we go. About half the time, this little word follows the imperative. We’ll have a case of that in v. 13, so I’m reserving the right to discuss it further there.
In this particular case, we have the phrase hinneh-na, combining this particle with the point-of-view word we’ve seen a number of times previously. Though hinneh is often translated as “behold,” and I myself have just translated it (more colloquially) as “look,” it is not really an imperative verb. Rather, it is usually meant to call someone’s attention to something — often, as here, with the implication (cue music) “♫ Try to see it my way ♫.”
For those who are interested in a deep dive — albeit a very readable one — into this tiny word נא, I can recommend the latest look at it in an article by the eminent Hebraist and member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language Steven Fassberg. He starts his article, as anyone discussing this word really must do, with the following statement from the Babylonian Talmud:
אין נא אלא לשון בקשה
He cites this expression from Ber. 9a and points as well to Sotah 10b, Sanh. 43b and 89b. It’s worth looking at some different translations of that rabbinic statement (which Rashi too will quote, but not until Gen 22:2).
נא is only an expression of request. (Fassberg)
The word ‘na’ means: I pray. (Soncino)
The word “please” in this context is nothing other than a term of appeal.43 (Artscroll)
Please [na] is nothing more than an expression of supplication. (Koren)
Note Artscroll’s disclaimer that na = “please” is being used that way “in this context.” Their n. 43 explains:
