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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Brak <Brak AT neo.rr.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew List <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Taw added to Verbs
  • Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 02:24:36 -0400

John,

It so happens that ATAH TO-)KAL is 'you [singular male] will eat', and HI TO-)KAL, is 'she will eat'. So the word TO-)KAL by itself is ambiguous as to gender and needs to be differentiated contextually. The full pronouns AT and ATAH are both reduced in this attachment to a mere T, and we don't know anymore which is which. Gender ambiguity is common. The Hebrew pronoun ANI, 'I', is, as in English, gender indifferent so that ANI )AKAL-TI, 'I ate', may be said by a man or a woman indifferently. The English sentence "The teacher said that you are good" is ambiguous as to both gender and number.
In Hebrew the referenced persons are often identified only contextually, and even then not always with certainty. For example, Leviticus 12:2, )I$AH KIY TAZRIY(A is translated as "If a woman have conceived seed". Now, TA-ZR-IY-(A, from the root ZR(, 'inseminate', contains the two personal pronouns TA, and YI. Common sense dictates that the first is for the husband and the second for his wife: 'if you [ATAH] husband will inseminate your [HI] wife', but according to the translation, and the prevailing wisdom, both pronouns go back to the wife: 'if a woman [AT] will plant [germinate] a seed within herself [HI]'.

In Judges 13:13-14 the subject is the wife and hence LO TO-)KAL is short for HI LO TO-)KAL, 'she will not eat'.

To come to the point: the translation of TO-)KAL is: 'you [singular male]/she [will] he/she/it eat'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 12, 2007, at 10:37 PM, Brak wrote:

But what if you just had the phrase LO) TO)KAL ?
For example in Gen 2:17 you have the same phrase. If it wasn't for the phrase )AKFL:KF it could be translated as "She eat", as God could be saying to Adam that the woman shouldn't eat the fruit.

I know I might be beating a dead horse here, but I'm just wondering out loud what one would do if there is no context in some other place in the verse to define whether the T is "you" or "she"

For example in Judges 13:14, couldn't the LO) TO)KAL be translated as "you eat" instead as "she eat" as it is translated?

I know I might be beating a dead horse, but I am just curious as to how to translate a single word without having to read a bunch of words or even verses before or after it in order to know how to translate it.

I hope I am being clear with describing my posed situation.


B"H
John Steven

"If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave."
-Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

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