# H5772 - onah

<!-- type: lexicon | created: 2026-07-06 | updated: 2026-07-06 -->

**Strong's:** [H5772](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5772/) · BLB lookup
**Pronunciation:** o-NAH
**Part of speech:** feminine noun
**OT occurrences:** **hapax legomenon**, the sole occurrence is Exodus 21:10 (as *onatah*, "her marital rights")
**Derivation:** from an unused root apparently meaning "to dwell together / cohabit"; a minority proposal links it to *onah*, "time / season" (the appointed marital time). The "cohabitation" gloss is standard; the "time" reading is a legitimate alternative in the literature.
**Spelling note:** lemmatized both plene (עוֹנָה, with vav) and defective (עֹנָה); the Masoretic form in Exodus 21:10 is עֹנָתָהּ.

## Semantic range

*Onah* denotes **cohabitation, conjugal rights, the marital duty of intimacy** owed by a husband to his wife. In Exodus 21:10 it is the third of three obligations, alongside *she'er* (food/flesh) and *kesut* (clothing), that a man must not diminish even for a secondary or slave-wife.

## The wife's positive right

Exodus 21:10-11 reads: "If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights (*onatah*). If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money."

The verse is remarkable: it frames intimacy as a **right the woman holds** and the man **owes**, and it enforces the right with the sanction of her freedom. Even the lowest-status wife is a rights-bearing party, not a possession. This is the seed of the later Jewish legal doctrine of *onah* (developed at Ketubot 47b-48a and following), under which a husband who withholds conjugal relations can be compelled to divorce and pay the *ketubah*.

## Apologetic load

1. **Marriage as reciprocal obligation, not male possession.** *Onah* shows the wife holding an enforceable right, which cuts directly against the "biblical women were property with no rights" charge. See [Biblical Marriage Consent Objection Defeater](/codex/biblical-marriage-consent-objection-defeater/).
2. **The Old Testament seed of mutual authority.** The right of *onah* anticipates the New Testament's explicit mutuality, where the wife has authority over the husband's body as much as his over hers (1 Corinthians 7:3-4). The trajectory runs from obligation to full reciprocity.
3. **Protection of the vulnerable wife.** The provision specifically guards the secondary or slave-wife (the very woman the objection imagines as a rightless sex-object), guaranteeing her freedom if her rights are denied.

## Notable verses

- Exodus 21:10-11, the three marital obligations and the freedom-sanction (the sole biblical occurrence)
- (Later development) the rabbinic *onah* doctrine, Ketubot 47b-48a (derivation) and 61b (the frequency schedule)

## See also

### Lexicon
- [H6370 - pilegesh](/codex/h6370-pilegesh/), the secondary wife whose *onah* is protected
- [H6031 - anah](/codex/h6031-anah/), the homograph-adjacent affliction verb (not the same root)

### Concepts and defeaters
- [Biblical Marriage Consent Objection Defeater](/codex/biblical-marriage-consent-objection-defeater/), where *onah* anchors the wife's rights
- [Deuteronomy 21 Captive Bride Objection Defeater](/codex/deuteronomy-21-captive-bride-objection-defeater/)
- [OT Sexual-Violence Laws](/codex/ot-sexual-violence-laws/)