Dear Karl, Your thoughtful comments propel me back to the books.
Although the two are related, I’d mention first that my comments were not on הבה HBH, which you address, but on יהב YHB. Leave Strong aside. Davidson explicates the root YHB as both a verb and as a noun “which some take as a verb,” and he refers specifically to Psalms 55:23. As a noun, Davidson (1848) has “burden, trouble.” Jastrow (1967) recognizes the noun as “bundle, load on the back,” but recognizes its origin from the verb, i.e., “that which is put on.” Klein also recognizes YHB as a noun meaning “load, burden,” but gives its derivation as from the verb. Klein also notes that the nominal form is a hapax legomenon, occurring only at Psalms 55:23. However, I must acknowledge that Mandelkern, in his Hebrew concordance (1896), gives יהבך YHBK, followed by a question mark, as a third person verb with a suffix. But he also gives יהב YHB and יהבך YHBK as a noun, again followed by a question mark in the former case. His translation is “onus, met. cura, sors.” He treats השלך H$LK as a verb in the imperative mood. With respect to שלה $LH and your suggestion that the Masoretic points be ignored and the possibility that השלך H$LK is in fact a noun with the definite article and the second person singular enclitic, I wonder whether we don’t have to construe the phrase rather tortuously in order to accommodate this reading. If we treat the root as שלה $LH, i.e., a peacemaker, and יהב YHB as a verb, we end up with something like “Your peacemaker will give/put you upon Adonai, and He will sustain you.” Your prosodic point about looking for a parallel construction in the following phrase, which contains the Yiqtol form יכלכלך YKLKLK is interesting. You suggest, on this basis, that יהבך YHBK should, therefore, also be read as a Yiqtol verb. As we all know, parallelism is common in the Psalms, but it is neither uniform nor inevitable. My fundamental objection to your reading of יהבך YHBK as a verb is that it forces us to treat השלך H$LK as a noun, with a resultant reading that, to me at least, makes little sense. That the translators of the NKJV and the Lutherbibel (“Wirf dein Anliegen auf den Herrn”) treat יהבך YHBK as a noun assuredly does not foreclose challenge. The Talmudic and rabbinic traditions are replete with just such efforts to examine words and phrases with grammatical and denotative casts at variance with the conventional. Still, in the absence of more convincing evidence, I’m inclined to retain my view that יהבך YHBK is not a Yiqtol verb. Kind regards. Bob [Description: http://www.drm.com/_gfx/DRM-blocks.gif] Robert D. Rachlin | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC Senior Director & General Counsel 199 Main Street, PO Box 190 | Burlington, VT 05402-0190 USA Direct: +1 (802) 846-8327 | Mobile: +1 (802) 734-6280 | Main: +1 (802) 863-2375 | Fax: +1 (802) 862-7512 Visiting Professor, Vermont Law School VLS Office: +1 (802) 831-1366 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | www.drm.com<http://www.drm.com/> From: K Randolph [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 15:21 To: Robert D. Rachlin Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHB in Psalms 55:23 Dear Robert: Unfortunately for your answer, Strong was not a Hebrew scholar, and as such his words are not considered authoritative in discussing the text. Likewise, don’t rely on the Masoretic points, as they are wrong often enough so as to be untrustworthy. What you need to do is to analyse the context: is השלך H$LK from the root שלך $LK or a noun from the root שלה $LH with a second person singular possessive suffix? Should we not be looking for a verb with the same conjugation as the following phrase, יכלכלך YKLKLK, in other words a third person singular Yiqtol verb with a second person singular object suffix? Now that you brought up a possible meaning, הבה HBH never has the meaning of “burden, lot or fate”, rather “to bring forth, go forth” with the action of coming out. This is after looking at more than 20 times that the verb is used. I look forward to your analysis. Karl W. Randolph. On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Robert D. Rachlin <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: The YHB root in Psalms 55:23 is, I'd suggest, not a Yiqtol verb form. The root YHB serves the noun for burden, lot, fate. There's also the primitive verb root YHB (give, ascribe, set) related to the same Aramaic root (give, prolong, pay). But in Psalms 55:23 the noun YHB *can* be related to the primitive verb, i.e., lot, fate is (according to Strong's) a preterite form, namely, what has been given. Robert D. Rachlin | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC Senior Director & General Counsel 199 Main Street, PO Box 190 | Burlington, VT 05402-0190 USA Direct: +1 (802) 846-8327<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0846-8327> | Mobile: +1 (802) 734-6280<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0734-6280> | Main: +1 (802) 863-2375<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0863-2375> | Fax: +1 (802) 862-7512<tel:%2B1%20%28802%29%20862-7512> Visiting Professor, Vermont Law School VLS Office: +1 (802) 831-1366<tel:%2B1%20%28802%29%20831-1366> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | www.drm.com<http://www.drm.com>
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