how to say “neighbor” in Hebrew
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שָׁכֵן, שְׁכֵנָה
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As we saw yesterday, the word לָגוּר (lah-GOOR), in Biblical Hebrew, means to reside somewhere temporarily or as a foreigner, while לָשֶׁבֶת (lah-SHEH-vet) means to settle somewhere permanently. In today’s Hebrew, לגור means simply to live somewhere, while לשבת means to sit down.
A synonym of these words is that for to dwell – לִשְׁכּוֹן, a word that appears in the Bible in poetic contexts such as:
הֶן עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן (בַּמִּדְבָּר כג:ט)
behold, (it is) a people that dwells alone (Numbers 23:9)
A day-to-day word deriving from לשכון is that for neighbor – שָׁכֵן (shah-KHEN) in the masculine and שְׁכֵנָה (sheh-kheh-NAH) in the feminine.
And in the masculine plural:
טוֹב שֶׁיֵּשׁ שְׁכֵנִים טוֹבִים.
It’s good to have (that there are) good neighbors.
Likewise, a neighborhood is a שְׁכוּנָה (sheh-khoo-NAH).
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