Dear Nir:

First, the words you are looking for I’ve seen listed in dictionaries as
ארר )RR and קבב QBB, not ארה )RH to nibble and קבה QBH “rib cage ?? Dt
18:3, chamber ?? Nu 25:8” In both cases the dictionary listings have a
doubled second letter in order to make them fit the pattern of three letter
roots. In this chapter, a -H suffix was added to emphasize a request.

I am away from my research materials for an extended trip, but what I have
seems to indicate that ארר )RR “to curse” is a stronger term than קלל QLL
“to treat lightly (unimportant), also to move lightly, quickly, to become
light”. קבב QBB “to execrate, call down a curse on” is a specialized subset
of cursing. ארר )RR is used from early to late texts within Tanakh.

As for the second question, why God first refused, then allowed Balaam to
go? I don’t know either, and any answer I’d propose at this time will be
speculation. I’ve puzzled over this many a time.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 4:06 PM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. 
<[email protected]>wrote:

> i cannot comment on the dagesh. but i am intrigued by the rare words
> )RH and QBH used in num 22, rather than QLL used in other (or later)
> contexts. more so, as opposite for BRK as appears in numbers 22:6.
> biblical )RH has to do with poison as well as a curse.
> QBH has to do with punching (NQB) or hammering (MQBT) or clubbing (QB),
> perhaps related to woodoo-type rituals related to cursing.
>
> this chapter raises one more problem: god allows bilam to go (22:20) but
> disapproves when he does go (22:22).
>
> nir cohen
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