<strong>AYIN</strong> (ā'yēn, Heb. <em>’ayin, an eye, a spring or fountain</em>)<br /><br />

The sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, probably so named because originally in outline the letter resembled an eye. See also [[Writing]].A place name. See [[Ain]].<br /><br />

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<strong>AYIN</strong> <strong>a’ yin</strong> (<span class="hebrew">עַ֫יִן</span>, <span class="gknumber">H6524</span>, <em>eye, fountain</em>). 1. The sixteenth letter of the Heb. alphabet named for the shape of the letter which resembles the picture of an eye. This letter also represents the <em>g</em> (<em>gayin</em>), a hard <em><sup>c</sup>ayin</em>, which was retained in Arab. and now is attested in the Ugaritic alphabet. It appears in the LXX rendering of the hard <em>’ayin</em> as a gamma (<em>g</em>), and in such proper names as Gomorrah and Gaza which both begin with an <em><sup>c</sup>ayin</em> which originally was a <em>gayin</em> (sounds like a gutteral <em>rg</em>). English also bears witness to this difference in that we borrow our word “gauze” from the fact that a thin fabric in medieval times called “gauze” was exported from Gaza.<br /><br />

2. A city named Ayin-Rimmon appears in <bibleref ref="Josh.15.32">Joshua 15:32</bibleref>; <bibleref ref="1Chr.4.32">1 Chronicles 4:32</bibleref>. These are usually read as two names, but they prob. belong together as one word and often are read as Ain-rimmon or En-rimmon.

<h2>Bibliography</h2>

E. Horowitz, <em>How the <span class="auto-link">[[Hebrew Language]]</span> Grew</em> (1961), 103, 104.<br /><br />

<h2>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915)</h2>

a’-yen: `ayin, "eye" or "fountain": The 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, so named, probably, because the original form resembled the eye. `Ayin (`) is usually neglected in pronunciation, and inverted comma (`) is the sign most commonly employed to represent it in transliteration.<br /><br />

The same sound is found in the Arabic and other Semitic languages. The Arabs have two pronunciations, one a very strong guttural formed at the back of the palate, something like a rattled "r" or "rg," the other similar in quality, only less harsh and guttural. The Septuagint reproduced the `ayin (`) in some cases by the Greek letter gamma (g). The numerical value of this letter is 70. An `ayin (`) begins each verse of the 16th section of <bibleref ref="Ps.119.1-Ps.119.176">Ps 119</bibleref> in the Hebrew.<br /><br />

W.W. Davies<br /><br />