Saying “Thank You” in Biblical Hebrew

Today, Modern Hebrew-speakers thank one another by saying, Todah! However, the Ancient Israelites did not thank one another in this way.

The Hebrew word todah (תּוֹדָה) is found in the Jewish Scriptures. It is usually rendered as “thanksgiving”, and referred primarily to an animal that was sacrificed as a thanksgiving offering. The related verb is hodah (הוֹדָה), which is rendered as “to thank” or “to praise”. However, both todah and hodah were used to denote “praise” to God, or to a person of higher status (Gen. 49:8). The Israelites did not use todah or hodah to thank one another like in Modern Hebrew.

As far as is known, the Israelites did not thank one another like we do today. Rather, the closest thing that they had in their language was that when a person of higher status has shown them kindness, they could respond by saying, “Let me find favour in your eyes.” (אֶמְצָא־חֵן בְּעֵינֶ֫יךָ) We find examples of this in the Jewish Scriptures:

Ruth 2:13 And she said, “Let me find favour in your eyes, O my lord, for you comforted me and spoke kindly to me, your maidservant, though I am not one of your maidservants.”

1 Samuel 1:18 And she said, “Let me, your maidservant, find favour in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was not sad anymore.

2 Samuel 16:4 Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.” And Ziba said, “I bow. Let me find favour in your eyes, O my lord the king.”

In each of these examples, the jussive mood is used, “Let me find” (אֶמְצָא). The idea seems to be that when kindness is shown, an appropriate response is a desire to please the person who has shown kindness.