Ken

YES (ken)

In contrast to the Hebrew word for negation lo (no) - which is from the same root and very similar in almost all the semitic languages - the word for "yes", in the sense of confirmation, varies in all those languages.
The Hebrew word ken (yes), acquired its meaning of "yes" as confirmation, only in the Middle Ages.
Moreover, no word of confirmation is to be found in the entire Bible [as in sentences such as "yes Sir"].
This may be because Biblical literature is not a literature of dialogue, but even in the Mishna and the Talmud - which are actually compositions of dialogues and discussions - there is no such word.
The fact that such a word is not transmitted to us from early times does not necessarily mean that it did not exist, because it is hard to believe that the only means of confirmation was to nod with the head.
Some words did come close to this meaning :
- hen (behold) and sometimes introduces an exclamation, in the sense "indeed", thus: hen 'am kelavi' yaqum wekha'ari yitnasa' (indeed, a people that shall rise up as a lioness and lift himself up as a lion) (Num. 23:24).
- In modern Hebrew, we have the verb hinhen from the word , with the meaning of "to nod".
- akhen (surely, indeed - emphasizes a subsequent exclamation) wayyiqats ya'aqov mishnato wayomer akhen yesh Adonay bammaqom hazzeh we'anokhi lo yada'ti (And Jacob awoke out from his sleep and he said, surely the Lord is in this place but I knew it not) (Gen. 28:16).
- The word has no connection with the word , being a contraction of the words akh (an adverb of emphasis with many meanings: but, only, yea, especially, surely, yet) and .
- In modern Hebrew, the word is sometimes also used in the sense of "yes, indeed", but only as an emphatic.

To understand the meanings of the use of , the modern Hebrew word for "yes", in common expressions and idioms, we must first examine the meaning of the word in the Bible and in the Talmud ().
In the Bible and in the , has the meaning of: so, as has been told, thus - and developed from the meaning of "the right manner, this manner".
Some examples:
- wayehi-khen (and it was so)(Gen 1:7)
  (for the reason why the is fricative although at the beginning of the word, see lesson two for the same phenomenon with the character ).
- wayomer Lavan lo-ye'ase khen bimqomenu latet hatse'ira lifne habbekhira (And Lavan said, it must not be done so in our place, to give the younger girl before the firstborn) (Gen. 29:26).
- wehu lo-khen yedamme ulevavo lo-khen yahshov (he means not so, neither does his heart think so) (Isa. 10:7).
- uvekhen ra'iti resha'im qevurim (And so I saw the wicked buried) (Eccl. 8:10).
- asher ken-'asu (those who had done right) (Eccl. 8:10).
- wayomer Yoav lo-khen 'ohila lefanekha (Then said Yo'av, it is not right for me to beg before you) (2Sam.18:14).
- werabbanan ameri ahavat 'olam wekhen hu omer (see Jer. 31:2) weahavat 'olam ahavtikha al ken meshakhtikha hased (and the wise men say, everlasting love, and so he said*, I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore I have remained true to thee) (Bab. Talmud Ber. 11b).
  
  * In the "" generaly introduces a quotation from the Bible
may have a temporal meaning, as in the sentences:
- mipne hara'av hahu ahare-khen (because of that famine after this) (Gen. 41:31).
- 'ad-ken lo higgadetti ( until then I had not yet told) (Neh. 2:16).