Day 64 of 75 · Judgment and liberation
Ḥ-Ṭ-ʾ
ḥtaha: the missing
חטא · חטיא
ܚܛܐ · ܚܛܝܐ
The feel
An arrow lands wide of its mark: Ḥ-Ṭ-ʾ names the miss, then the person known by it. You are not the label others give you. The Aramaic picture keeps you distinct from your wrongdoing: you aimed, you missed, you can see the gap.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Translit | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| ḥṭa | verb (Peal) | ḥṭā | חטא ܚܛܐ | to sin | to miss the mark: Palestinian Aramaic attested |
| ḥaṭaya | adjective / noun, qaṭṭāl pattern | ḥaṭṭāyā | חטיא ܚܛܝܐ | sinner, sinful | one who misses the mark: 33 occurrences; PA / DJPA attested |
| ḥṭaha | noun | ḥṭāhā | חטהא ܚܛܗܐ | sin | the missing: standard Syriac noun of this family; teaching scaffold, not glossary-matched in this corpus |
Paradigm forms are a teaching scaffold from standard Aramaic grammar; corpus-attested words above are drawn from the glossary.
The verb stems
| Stem | Form | Sense | Witness |
|---|
| Peal | ḥṭa | to miss the mark, to do wrong | corpus: ḥṭit "I have missed the mark" (Luke 15:18) |
| Aphel | aḥṭi | to cause to miss, lead into fault | standard lexicon; not found in this corpus |
| Ethpeel · Pael · Ethpaal · Ettaphal · Shaphel | — | — | not attested for this root |
Stem table is a grammar scaffold: how Aramaic bends one root through voice and cause.
In his voice
Matthew 9:13 · interlinear
Go and learn what this means: I want compassion, not sacrifice. I did not come to call those doing what is right, but those who miss the mark.
l-ḥaṭaye , "those who miss the mark": spoken at a dinner table, over the heads of the very people the word was being used against.
Luke 15:7 · interlinear
I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one who misses the mark and turns around than over ninety-nine doing what is right, who have no need to turn around.
ḥaṭaya d-taeb , "one who misses the mark and turns around": the two roots of the whole gospel arithmetic side by side, the miss and the turn.
Luke 15:18 · interlinear
I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have missed the mark against heaven and before you.
ḥṭit , "I have missed the mark": the prodigal's rehearsed confession, the verb in the first person at last. Palestinian Aramaic attests this verb: the confession sounds like Galilee.
Practice
Recall one word, silence, or choice that went wide this week. Name where it landed and where you meant it to land. Say, without excuse or condemnation: “I missed.”
Say ḥaṭaye as “those who miss the mark”: name the shot, not the person.
Connections
Witness note: the forms above rest on the Peshitta as the primary witness, with Palestinian Aramaic attestation marked where a Western source carries the word.