H8233 H8233
beauty, goodliness, attractiveness
This noun denotes beauty or attractive appearance, occurring in Jacob's blessing upon Naphtali in Genesis 49:21. The phrase 'words of beauty' (or 'beautiful words') is part of the poetic imagery describing Naphtali as a doe let loose who gives beautiful offspring. The term captures aesthetic excellence and pleasing form, whether in speech, appearance, or offspring. The brevity of usage makes precise definition challenging, but the semantic field clearly centers on visual or auditory beauty.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Translations uniformly render this as 'beauty,' 'goodliness,' or 'attractiveness' (Spanish hermosura, French beauté, German Schönheit). The context in Genesis 49:21 links this beauty to Naphtali's 'words' or offspring, though textual ambiguities make the exact referent debated. The consistent cross-linguistic agreement confirms the core aesthetic sense of this rare noun. 1×
AR["حُسْنٍ"]·ben["সুন্দরের"]·DE["Schönheit"]·EN["beauty"]·FR["beauté"]·heb["שפר"]·HI["सुंदर"]·ID["indah"]·IT["beauty"]·jav["endah"]·KO["아름다운"]·PT["beleza"]·RU["прекрасные"]·ES["hermosura"]·SW["neno"]·TR["güzel"]·urd["خوبصورت"]
Related Senses
H3808 1. simple negation (not) (4839×)G1722 1. locative: in, within (2442×)H1004b 1. house, dwelling, building (2015×)G3756 1. not (negation particle) (1635×)H4480a 1. source or separation (1198×)H5892b 1. city, town (1093×)G1519 1. direction: into, to, toward (1061×)H3427 1. Qal: to dwell, inhabit (937×)G1537 1. from, out of (source/origin) (886×)H8034 1. Name (designation / identifier) (856×)G3361 1. subjective negation (not) (834×)G1909 1. on, upon (spatial surface) (757×)H0369 1. existential negation: there is not (738×)H5869a 1. in the eyes/sight of (evaluative) (734×)H5650 1. Servant, attendant, subject (723×)H0408 1. prohibitive negation do-not (712×)G2443 1. so that, in order that (purpose/result) (665×)G0575 1. from (649×)G1223 1. through, by means of (582×)H3541 1. thus, so, in this manner (569×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† I. [שֶׁ֫פֶר] n. m. beauty, goodliness;—abs. אִמְרֵי־שָׁ֑פֶר Gn 49:21 (v. אֹמֶר, אָמִיר).