amar

Grammar

Word: אמר
Representation: AMR
Transliteration: Amar
Verb: "said", "answered"
Strong Concordance: H559

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Exposition

This is the past-tense masculine form of "to say". It is also a singular form, and because Hebrew is gender-based, "he-said" or "it said" is equally valid, and so should be translated appropriately based on the context of the verse.

Biblical Hebrew will also link collective nouns in the singular form, which is not normally done in modern Hebrew. And sometimes a plural form will be used against a singular noun.

This can be confusing at first, but should be considered a style rather than a grammatical error, or proof that the noun is either singular or plural.

Example of a singular noun with a plural verb: Genesis 11:3 "And man [singular] said [plural] to..

Example of plural noun with singular verb: Exodus 4:29: "And Moses and Aaron [he] went (singular)..."

And of course, every instance of the plural noun "Elohim" has a singular verb, as in "And the Elohim [he] said (singular).

This style has resulted in some interesting ideological views of the text.