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  • From: "Eliot Fintushel" <show AT fintushel.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] ברך in JOB
  • Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:54:10 -0800

I'm a student of biblical Hebrew, building on my rudimentary childhood familiarity, and a dramatist--I'm preparing an ensemble piece, in Hebrew and English, with lots of movement, for dancers and actors. Part of our text comes from Job, and I'm trying to understand it as well as I can . . .

I notice that the Hebrew word ordinarily translated as"bless" here seems to mean its opposite--curse. I know that lots of people have commented on this over the centuries. Can you tell me what your take is on this, or what is the current consensus, if any? In particular, is it simply a scribal obfuscation, a matter of substituting a less offensive word, or is this use of ברך not unique to Job, or does it possibly point to something deeper?

Eliot Fintushel
Imaginists Theatre Collective
Santa Rosa, CA



  • [b-hebrew] ברך in JOB, Eliot Fintushel, 08/30/2012

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