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Shalom, first time posting.

Can someone help me track down a dictionary entry for the word איצטנא or אצטנא (which is found in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan for Exodus 16:4 and 16:15)?

The English translation for the passage in Sefaria translates this word as “laid up”. I tried to find this word in Jastrow, looking under every possible variant I can think of, to no avail.

Google has been no help to me either. I was hoping someone can either point me to it in Jastrow or find it in a different dictionary.

I’m just curious since I normally have no trouble locating a definition for a word like this using the tools I mentioned.

Any help is appreciated.

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    There's Rabbi Ezra Tzion Melamed's Hebrew-Aramaic dictionary, you could try there.
    – Harel13
    Mar 13, 2020 at 7:36
  • Nowadays art scroll translates Aramaic
    – Dr. Shmuel
    Mar 15, 2020 at 7:33

2 Answers 2

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You can find this in Jastrow under צְנַע.

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    You should summarize the entry and not just link to it.
    – sabbahillel
    Mar 13, 2020 at 10:22
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    While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review
    – sabbahillel
    Mar 13, 2020 at 10:22
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    I don't see the answer there, unless you equate איצטנע with איצטנא (which may be the case, but Jastrow doesn't say so)
    – b a
    Mar 13, 2020 at 11:03
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    @ba: in many editions it is in fact written דאיצטנע with an ayin.
    – Meir
    Mar 13, 2020 at 13:32
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    @sabbahillel the OP asked where he could find a definition, and I gave the source. The question is not about the meaning of the word, and my answer is equally valid without the link.
    – simyou
    Mar 13, 2020 at 14:05
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The verb in the Aramaic is in the hithpa’al stem, which is reflexive/passive, and so has the idea of “laid up” as noted by the OP. (The relative pronoun daleth “ד” is also prefixed to the verb.) So the verse would read as follows with the verb translated in bold italics:

4 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will bring down for you bread from heaven, which has been reserved for you from the beginning. And the people will go out and gather a day’s portion every day, in order to test them, [to see] whether they observe the precepts of my Law or not.”

The footnote for this verse in the English translation provides the following:

The manna was among the ten things which, according to rabbinic tradition, were 
created on the eve of the first sabbath.

Thus the manna from heaven was stored (“reserved”) in heaven since the first Sabbath (“from the beginning”), and only given to the Israelites when they were traveling in the desert with Moses. The exact same verb form occurs again several verses later, and the translation is the same with the translated verb noted in bold italics:

15 When the children of Israel saw [it], they were amazed, and they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that was reserved for you from the beginning in the heavens on high; and now the Lord is giving it to you to eat.

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English translations taken from:

Cathcart, K., Maher, M., & McNamara, M. (Eds.). (1994). The Aramaic Bible: Targum Neofiti 1: Exodus and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Exodus. (M. McNamara, M. Maher, & R. Hayward, Trans.) (Vol. 2, Ex 16:4). Collegeville: Liturgical Press.

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