כְּעֶ֫נֶת and (Ezra 4:17) contracted כְּעֶת adverb now (feminine of כְּעַן; so first SS Torrey^{JBL 16 (1897), 166 ff.}; now confirmed by Egyptian Aramaic כענת Cowley^{PSBA xxv. 264, 311, 312} ( = RES^492-4 = S-C^{M, N, O}); ׳וכ formerly taken to mean and so forth); — always ׳וּכ, and always in a letter, introducing the business of the letter, and to be connected with what follows, not, as ᵑ0, with what precedes: Ezra 4:10 (strike out, as introduced by error from end of Ezra 4:11), Ezra 4:11 (joining to Ezra 4:12) and now, let it be known, etc., Ezra 4:17f. and now, the letter which, etc., Ezra 7:12f. and now, I make a decree, etc. (compare וְעַתָּה similarly in letters 2 Kings 5:6; 2 Kings 10:2, and καὶ νῦν2Macc 1:6).