הוּא (Hu): He Himself

Reformed Thinking · Jan 8, 2026 · 21m · transcript

Deep Dive into הוּאThe Hebrew word hū’ primarily serves as the third-person singular masculine pronoun, translated as "he" or "it." Its feminine counterpart is hī’, meaning "she." A significant linguistic feature found throughout the Pentateuch is the use of hū’ as an epicene or common-gender pronoun, representing both masculine and feminine subjects. Scholars suggest this may be an archaism or a reflection of older orthography where the distinction was not always graphically represented. Later Masoretic punctuators indicated when the word should be read as feminine despite its masculine…