לְאַט (le'at) — slowly (meaning disputed)
Etymology
Few Hebrew words seem more self-evident than לְאַט — "slowly," as in le'at le'at (gradually), nesi'ah atit (a slow drive), ha'et et haketsev (slow the pace). Every translator and commentator across two millennia has read it this way. Yet a recent study by researchers Elisha Qimron and Alexei Yuditsky, accepted for publication in the journal Leshonenu, argues that this near-universal reading may rest on a fundamental misunderstanding.
The conventional analysis treats לְאַט as the preposition le- plus the adverb אַט, meaning "slowly." Three problems arise. First, no Semitic cognate of אַט meaning "slow" has been found in any related language — surprising for a word of such basic meaning. Second, one occurrence of לְאַט takes a possessive suffix: לְאִטִּי (Genesis 33:14, "I will go le'iti"), which is normal for nouns but highly unusual for adverbs. Third, the meaning "slowly" fits awkwardly in several passages.
The key to Qimron and Yuditsky's discovery is the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa), one of the Dead Sea Scrolls dated to the first century BCE, in which the Masoretic text's "מֵי הַשִּׁלֹחַ הַהֹלְכִים לְאַט" (Isaiah 8:6, "the waters of Shiloach that flow gently/slowly") appears as "לאוט" — le'ot. The word אוֹט was unknown before the scrolls but turns out to be common in them. Based on the scroll "Raz Nihyeh" (4Q418), which reads "like a spring of living waters that contained its ot," Qimron and Yuditsky conclude that אוֹט means "water reservoir" and by extension "property" or "assets."
Under this reading, Isaiah 8:6 says not that the Shiloach waters flow slowly but that they flow into their reservoir. Genesis 33:14, where Jacob says he will travel le'iti ("at my slow pace" in traditional translation), would instead mean he will travel "according to his property" — at the pace set by his livestock and children. A third occurrence, David's command in 2 Samuel 18:5 to "deal gently with (le'at li) the young man Absalom," remains problematic for both interpretations; most scholars have proposed it derives from the root ל-ו-ט (covering, protecting), yielding "protect" or "shelter" — consistent with the later verse "guard the young man Absalom."
The two solo occurrences of אַט — King Ahab walking at in mourning (1 Kings 21:27) and the difficult Hosea 11:4 — have also troubled commentators. The Aramaic Targum of Jonathan rendered Ahab's at as "barefoot," while Rav Hai Gaon and Rabbi Joseph Kara read it as "bent/bowed." These interpretations suit the context of mourning far better than "slowly."
If Qimron and Yuditsky are correct, the entire modern family of words derived from this root — אִטִּי (slow), אִטִּיּוּת (slowness), הֵאֵט (to slow down), הוּאַט (was slowed) — rests on an interpretive error two thousand years old. The scholars themselves emphasize this is a scholarly proposal, not a settled fact. The discovery would not have been possible without the chance find of the Dead Sea Scrolls by a wandering shepherd eighty years ago.
Key Quotes
"וַאֲנִי אֶתְנָהֲלָה לְאִטִּי לְרֶגֶל הַמְּלָאכָה אֲשֶׁר לְפָנַי וּלְרֶגֶל הַיְלָדִים" — בראשית ל״ג, י״ד
"לְאַט לִי לַנַּעַר לְאַבְשָׁלוֹם" — שמואל ב׳ י״ח, ה׳
"כמקור מים חיים אשר הכיל אוטו" — מגילת 'רז נהיה', 4Q418
Timeline
- Biblical period: לְאַט / אַט appear five times total in the Bible; conventionally understood as "slowly"
- 1st century BCE: Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) spells the word "לאוט," not "לאט"
- 1947 onward: Dead Sea Scrolls discovered; the word אוֹט found to be common in scroll literature
- Modern era: Words אִטִּי, הֵאֵט, אִטִּיּוּת coined based on the conventional "slowly" interpretation
- Recent: Qimron and Yuditsky article proposing the אוֹט/reservoir interpretation accepted by Leshonenu
Related Words
- אִטִּי — "slow" (modern adjective derived from the conventional reading of אַט)
- אִטִּיּוּת — "slowness" (modern abstract noun)
- הֵאֵט — "to slow down" (modern verb)
- אוֹט — "water reservoir / property" (Dead Sea Scrolls word; proposed original meaning of אַט)
- לְאִטִּי — "at my pace" / "toward my property" (Genesis 33:14, with possessive suffix)