Day 67 of 75 · Judgment and liberation
Ḥ-Y-B
ḥayyaba: debtor
חיבא
ܚܝܒܐ
The feel
Ḥ Y B means to owe: money in a ledger, a burden carried into the creditor’s room, liability named in court. A ḥayyaba is the one bound to repay, the one the ledger points at. In Yeshua’s prayer, your release opens exactly as wide as the release you extend.
The root family
| Form | Pattern | Translit | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|
| ḥayyab | adjective, qaṭṭāl pattern | ḥayyāb | דחיב ܕ݁ܚܰܝܳܒ݂ (corpus form d-ḥayyab) | owing, liable | owed, in debt (Matthew 18:24) |
| ḥayyaba | noun | ḥayyābā | חיבא ܚܝܒܐ | debtor | one in debt: 13 occurrences in the corpus |
| ḥayyeb | verb (Pael) | ḥayyeb | ונחיבונה ܘܢܚܝܒܘܢܗ (corpus form wa-nḥaybunah) | to condemn | condemn: literally "declare liable" (Matthew 12:41) |
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 | ḥab | to owe, be liable | corpus face is the participle-adjective ḥayyab "owing" (Matthew 18:24; Luke 7:41) |
| Pael | ḥayyeb | to declare liable, condemn | corpus: wa-nḥaybunah "and condemn it" (Matthew 12:41) |
| Ethpaal | etḥayyab | to be found liable | standard grammar scaffold; not found in this corpus |
| Ethpeel · Aphel · 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 6:12 · interlinear
And release us from our debts, as we have released those in debt to us.
ḥawbayn … l-ḥayyabayn , "our debts … those in debt to us": the prayer holds both branches of the debt family in one breath (Ḥ-W-B, the debt, and Ḥ-Y-B, the debtor), hinged on the verb of release.
Matthew 18:24 · interlinear
As he began the reckoning, a man was brought to him who owed ten thousand talents.
d-ḥayyab , "who owed": ten thousand talents is a deliberately impossible number, a debt no lifetime of labor could touch. The parable needs you to feel the full weight of ḥayyab before it shows you what release costs.
Luke 7:41 · interlinear
Two men were in debt to a certain moneylender. One owed five hundred coins, the other fifty.
ḥayyabe , "two in debt": told at a Pharisee's table, over a woman everyone present had already declared liable. The question that follows (who will love more?) turns the ledger into a window.
Practice
Sit with the ledger you keep in silence. Name one apology, sum, thanks, or lost year you believe is owed. Mark one line released: not excused, not forgotten, released.
Say ḥawba for the debt, ḥayyaba for the one who owes.
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.