H2936 H2936
to soil, defile; make dirty or ritually impure
A Piel verb appearing only in Song of Songs 5:3, where the beloved woman hesitates to open the door for her lover: 'I have washed my feet—how can I soil them?' The verb captures her momentary reluctance to get her clean feet dirty by walking to the door. The word is an Aramaic form used poetically, adding exotic flavor to the love poem. This single occurrence makes mundane domesticity—clean feet, reluctance to re-dirty them—part of the playful, teasing rhetoric of courtship.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Song of Songs 5:3 uses this verb in the beloved's coy response to her lover's knocking. The Spanish 'I will soil them' and French 'would I soil them?' both capture her rhetorical question about re-dirtying her freshly washed feet. The Aramaic loan-word contributes to the Song's distinctive poetic register, mixing languages as freely as it mixes metaphors of love. 1×
AR["أَطَنّْفِيم"]·ben["আমি-মলিন-করব?"]·DE["[אטנפם]"]·EN["shall-I-soil-them"]·FR["les-salirais-je?"]·heb["אטנפם"]·HI["गंदा-करूँ-उन्हें-मैं"]·ID["aku-mengotorinya"]·IT["shall-Io-soil-loro-loro"]·jav["kula-ngregeti-piyambakipun"]·KO["내-가-그것들-을-더럽히리오"]·PT["os-sujarei"]·RU["запачкать-их."]·ES["los-ensuciaré"]·SW["tena"]·TR["kirleteyim-onlari"]·urd["میں-گندے-کروں-انھیں"]
Related Senses
H3548 1. priest, cultic officiant (750×)G5547 1. Christ, Messiah, Anointed One (540×)H5030 1. Prophet, divine spokesperson (317×)H5930a 1. burnt offering (sacrifice) (286×)H3881 1. Levites (priestly class) (283×)G4396 1. prophet, spokesperson of God (146×)H6944 1. sanctuary, holy place (129×)G0749 1. high priest, chief priest (123×)H6944 2. holiness, sacredness (abstract quality) (123×)G5330 1. Pharisee (99×)G4336 1. pray to God (86×)H6944 3. holy things, sacred offerings (plural) (86×)H3722a 1. make ritual atonement (Piel) (85×)H6912 1. bury (Qal active) (82×)H6419 1. pray (Hitpael) (80×)H6944 4. holiness (with possessive pronoun) (77×)H6942 1. sanctify, consecrate (Piel factitive) (76×)H2930a 1. Qal: be/become unclean (75×)H7819a 1. slaughter an animal (Qal active) (72×)H1486 1. lot (object cast for decisions) (71×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† [טָנַף] vb. soil, defile (NH Pi. id.; Aramaic Pa. טַנֵּף, ܛܰܢܶܦ; Assyrian ṭanâpu ii, i, DlPr 33; HWB 302; Arabic طَنِفَ is be suspicious, be intrinsically corrupt)— Pi. Impf. אֲטַנְּפֵם Ct 5:3 how should I soil them, i.e. my feet (poet. Aramaism).