Ways to Say “You”: אַתָּה and לְךָ

“You” said to a man, to a woman or to many: אַתָּה “you”, לְךָ “to you”, then “your”, “you are” and the “you” inside a verb, five at a time.

“You”, said to a man

Hebrew has one “you” for a man and another for a woman. For a man, “you” on its own is אַתָּה, and joined to the end of a little word it is ־ְךָ, said “-khā”: לְךָ “ləkhā”, to you. The same ending goes on almost any little word: “to you”, “with you”, “from you”. God uses this form when he speaks to one man, and also when he speaks to all Israel as one person.

אַתָּה הָאִישׁ “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7)

לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָי “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)

כִּי עִמְּךָ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תֵּלֵךְ “for yəḥawwe your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9)

“You”, said to a woman

For a woman, “you” on its own is אַתְּ, and the ending is ־ךְ, with no vowel after it, said “-kh”: לָךְ “lākh”, עִמָּךְ “ʿimmākh”. Listen for the end of the word: the man’s form ends in a vowel, “-khā”; the woman’s ends in the sound “kh”.

בַּת־מִי אַתְּ “Whose daughter are you?” (Genesis 24:23)

מַה־לָּךְ הָגָר “What is wrong, Hagar?” (Genesis 21:17)

הִנֵּה מַלְכֵּךְ יָבוֹא לָךְ “Look, your king is coming to you” (Zechariah 9:9)

“You”, said to many

For more than one person, “you” on its own is אַתֶּם, and the ending is ־כֶם, said “-khem”: לָכֶם “lākhem”, to you all. English has lost this “you all”, but Hebrew always shows it. Hebrew uses these forms for a group of men, for a mixed group, and often for a group of women too.

אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם לִפְנֵי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם “You are standing today, all of you, before yəḥawwe your God” (Deuteronomy 29:9)

וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים וְאַתֶּם תִּהְיוּ־לִי לְעָם “and I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:12)

אַתֶּם רְאִיתֶם “You yourselves have seen” (Exodus 19:4)

“Your”, said to a man

Hebrew has no separate word for “your”. It is the same ending as in לְךָ “to you”, put on the end of a noun: שִׁמְךָ is “your name”, word for word “name of you”. For a man the ending is ־ְךָ “-khā”, or ־ֶיךָ “-ekhā” on words that end in ־ִים, such as אֱלֹהִים “God”.

כַּבֵּד אֶת־אָבִיךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּךָ “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12)

קַח־נָא אֶת־בִּנְךָ “Take, please, your son” (Genesis 22:2)

מָה־אַדִּיר שִׁמְךָ בְּכָל־הָאָרֶץ “how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:2)

“Your”, said to a woman

For a woman, “your” is ־ֵךְ “-ēkh”, ending in the sound “kh” with no vowel after it, or ־ַיִךְ “-ayikh” on words such as אֱלֹהִים. Compare בִּנְךָ “binkhā”, your son, said to a man, with בְּנֵךְ “bənēkh”, your son, said to a woman. The letters are almost the same; the vowels and the last sound tell you who is spoken to.

עַמֵּךְ עַמִּי וֵאלֹהַיִךְ אֱלֹהָי “Your people are my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16)

שְׂאִי בְנֵךְ “Lift up your son” (2 Kings 4:36)

הַשְׁמִיעִינִי אֶת־קוֹלֵךְ “let me hear your voice” (Song of Songs 2:14)

“Your”, said to many

For many, “your” is ־כֶם “-khem”, the same ending as לָכֶם “to you all”: לְבַבְכֶם “ləvavkhem”, your heart. On words that end in ־ִים it is ־ֵיכֶם “-ēkhem”. English says “your” to one person or to many, so only the Hebrew shows when Moses or a prophet is speaking to the whole people at once.

קְדֹשִׁים תִּהְיוּ כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם “You shall be holy, for I, yəḥawwe your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2)

וּמַלְתֶּם אֵת עָרְלַת לְבַבְכֶם “So circumcise the foreskin of your heart” (Deuteronomy 10:16)

“You are”

English needs “are”: you are, you were. When Hebrew says what someone is, it usually has no verb at all. It puts “you” next to what you are: אַתָּה הָאִישׁ, “you the man”. The word-for-word lines show the missing word in square brackets: “you [are] the man”. The “you” still tells you who is spoken to: אַתָּה for a man, אַתְּ for a woman, אַתֶּם for many.

בְּנִי אַתָּה “You are my son” (Psalm 2:7)

כִּי־עָפָר אַתָּה וְאֶל־עָפָר תָּשׁוּב “For dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19)

מִי־אַתְּ בִּתִּי “Who are you, my daughter?” (Ruth 3:16)

“You” inside the verb

Often Hebrew needs no separate word for “you”, because the verb carries it. Listen to the end of the verb: the command שְׁמַע goes to a man, שִׁמְעִי to a woman, שִׁמְעוּ to many. In the past, ־ְתָּ “-tā” means “you” (a man) and ־ְתֶּם “-tem” means “you all”. You can hear אַתָּה “attā” and אַתֶּם “attem” inside those endings.

שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל “Hear, Israel” (Deuteronomy 6:4)

שִׁמְעִי־בַת וּרְאִי “Hear, daughter, and see” (Psalm 45:11)

שָׁמַעְתָּ קוֹלִי “you heard my voice” (Jonah 2:3)

Which “you”? Reading the endings in real verses

You know the forms now. Hebrew always shows who is spoken to: one man, one woman, or many. English says “you” for all three, so the Hebrew often tells you more than an English Bible can.

1. The ending tells you who. ־ְךָ “-khā” is a man, ־ךְ “-kh” is a woman, ־כֶם “-khem” is many. The same endings on a noun mean “your”: אֱלֹהֶיךָ “your God”, said to one, and אֱלֹהֵיכֶם “your God”, said to many.

2. Watch for the pause. At the end of a phrase, where a reader stops, a word often stretches its vowel. Then a man’s לְךָ looks just like a woman’s לָךְ, and אַתָּה becomes אָתָּה. God speaks to Cain, a man: לָמָּה חָרָה לָךְ “Why are you angry?” (Genesis 4:6). The next verse speaks to him again, not at a pause, and has the man’s forms: וְאֵלֶיךָ תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ וְאַתָּה תִּמְשָׁל־בּוֹ “its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7). So when you see לָךְ, ask who is being spoken to.

The same happens to אַתָּה: מִי הִגִּיד לְךָ כִּי עֵירֹם אָתָּה “Who told you that you were naked?” (Genesis 3:11). Here לְךָ is in the middle and keeps its form; אָתָּה is at the pause and stretches.

3. Many women. Hebrew has a “you” for a group of women, אַתֵּנָה, but it is rare. Jacob uses it to Rachel and Leah: וְאַתֵּנָה יְדַעְתֶּן “and you know” (Genesis 31:6). Much more often the ־כֶם forms are used for women too. Naomi says to her two daughters-in-law: יִתֵּן יְהוָה לָכֶם “May yəḥawwe grant you …” (Ruth 1:9).

4. The verb already says “you”. A verb shows who acts by itself: תִּמְשָׁל is “you will rule”. So when אַתָּה stands beside the verb, it puts weight on the person: “but you must rule over it”. And with no verb at all, Nathan points at King David: אַתָּה הָאִישׁ “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7).

5. Why it matters: each one, and all of you. God spoke the Ten Commandments to the whole people at Sinai, yet he says “you” to one man: לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָי “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), and וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ “You shall love yəḥawwe your God with all your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Each person is spoken to; no one can hide in the crowd. Moses also speaks to them all together: אַתֶּם נִצָּבִים הַיּוֹם כֻּלְּכֶם “You are standing today, all of you” (Deuteronomy 29:9). The commandments are for each one, and for the whole people, together.

6. “Your king is coming to you.” Zechariah speaks to Jerusalem, pictured as a daughter, so every “you” has the woman’s ending: הִנֵּה מַלְכֵּךְ יָבוֹא לָךְ צַדִּיק וְנוֹשָׁע הוּא עָנִי וְרֹכֵב עַל־חֲמוֹר “Look, your king is coming to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). The Gospels quote this verse when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:5, John 12:15). The king comes to her, to “you”.

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