# ואכלת ושבעת



## Ihsiin

Hello everyone. Whilst walking around the Roman Ghetto I spotted a sign hanging in a restaurant which read ואכלת ושבעת. Converting the letters to Arabic I read it as وأكلت وشبعت, which is 'And I/you/she ate and I/you/she was satiated,' which obviously makes sense in the context of a restaurant. I did however feel that the correspondence might be too neat, and I wasn't sure about how the ש and ش matched up as reflexes of proto-Semitic sibilants. I have therefore two questions:

1. Is this Hebrew, or might it be Judeo-Arabic?
2. If it is Hebrew, does it mean the same as the Arabic phrase, or is its meaning different?

Thank you.


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## shalom00

It is a quote from the Torah (Deuteronomy 8:10).


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## Ihsiin

Thanks  I have looked it up and it seems it does indeed have the same meaning as in Arabic and the words are cognates.


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## slus

Yes. It's biblical Hebrew. The words are similar to modern Hebrew but the grammar is different.
Incidentally, the Arabic transcription has exactly the same meaning, although it refers only to "you" - 
In modern Hebrew this reads "and you ate and you were satiated", but in biblical Hebrew it meant "you shall eat and you shall be satiated".


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## Drink

I was once in Nachal Prat and there was a pool you could swim in and there was a sign in both Hebrew and Arabic that read (if I recall correctly, I regret not taking a picture):


עומק הברכה X.X מטר
عمق البركة X.X متر


Which is almost letter-for-letter identical. I'm always amazed when I find whole phrases like this.


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## elroy

slus said:


> the Arabic transcription has exactly the same meaning, although it refers only to "you"


 I may have misunderstood you, but the Arabic version can be “I,” “you,” or “she” (as Ihsiin said).


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## slus

I meant that the Hebrew only refers to "you".
The pool sign is really cool.


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## amikama

Just note that it's ושׂבעת with a sin (not shin), so an Arabic transliteration would be وسبعت.


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## Drink

amikama said:


> Just note that it's ושׂבעת with a sin (not shin), so an Arabic transliteration would be وسبعت.



For a phonetic transliteration, you'd be right (but then you'd also have to say it's a ڤ rather than a ب, so وسڤعت). But for etymological correspondence, the Hebrew sin שׂ corresponds to Arabic shin ش, while Hebrew shin שׁ corresponds to Arabic sin س (or thaa ث). So وشبعت shows the etymological connection better than وسڤعت.


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