Bible Dictionary
AYIN
Ayin is the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, named from a word meaning “eye” or “fountain.” It is a guttural consonant, has a numerical value of seventy, and begins the sixteenth section of Psalm 119.
Definition
Ayin is the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its name means “eye” or “fountain,” and its original form probably resembled an eye. It is a guttural consonant and has the numerical value seventy.
Biblical Usage
Ayin begins each verse of the sixteenth section of Psalm 119 in the Hebrew text.
Historical Background
The sound occurs in Arabic and other Semitic languages. It is often neglected in pronunciation and commonly represented in transliteration by an inverted comma; the Septuagint sometimes represented it with gamma.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>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.</p><p>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 Ps 119 in the Hebrew.</p><p>W.W. Davies</p>