HE
HE (Heb. הֵא ;ה) the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its numerical value is therefore 5; pronounced as a fricative laryngeal. The earliest Proto-Canaanite form of the he is a pictograph of a calling (or praying) man , . This developed in South Arabic into and in the Phoenician script into . Variants of the latter form survived in the Hebrew , Samaritan , and Greek (and Latin) "E", where it became the vowel epsilon. The Aramaic he unified the two lower horizontal bars into one vertical . This form was adopted by the Jewish script, but later the left vertical separated from the upper horizontal stroke . The Natatean he joined the two downstrokes and thus the Arabic developed. ה׳ is used as an abbreviation for the Divine Name. It is also frequently found on *amulets where it signifies the five fingers of the hand. See *Alphabet, Hebrew.
