[metmom]

Does anyone remember where that post was about the translation that was used for the word *wife* that was also translated as *mate* when referring to animals?

[McCoMo]

I cannot say I remember that, but I did take a look at the Hebrew scripts of the Torah which had an English translation transposed side by side. Something I found peculiar was in the passage where Abraham's wife Sarah sent Hagar to be as his wife (and yes that particular site does use the word wife in both places) the word in the Hebrew version for wife, in reference to Sarah, was of a completely different spelling than the word for wife in reference to Hagar. It strikes me as strange that an identical (in translation) word would have two different spellings. I suspect there is some subtle difference, such as you mention, that the site is not taking into account. I would be very interested in finding a Hebrew scholar who could clarify the meaning of each.

[Godzilla]

A more direct reference can be found here

http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?Strongs=0802&t=KJV&cscs=Gen

although the animal argument is weak in this application