Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <596547 AT ican.net>]

Hi Irene, Steve, et al.

Fox has a Hebrew word for steam; observe the Gen 4:2 note on the name
Hevel(commonly known as Abel):  "The name suggests vapor, steam, i.e.,
'something transitory' (see the opening of the book of Ecclesiastes: _havel
havalim_)."  But I think the root may not be used in any meteorological
context.

Or how about _)ed_ in Gen 2:6  _v:)ed ya(a:leh min ha)arec_  BDB says
"mist" for _)ed_, and the Fox says for Gen 2:6, "...but a surge would well
up from the ground..."

You may want to see Job 36:32-33 or Ps 148:8 more likely meteorological
references.

Shalom,
Bryan


----------
> From: Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>
> To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Translation
> Date: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 10:15 AM
> 
> Dear List People
> 
> I have a strange question:  Is there a word for "steam" in biblical
> Hebrew?  In Akkadian?
> 
> If there is, I wonder if it's a construct form using as one of its
> elements "water" (mym) or "nose" (@p) or "to ascend" [ (lh]?
> 
> I was reading the BDB definition of @p---nose, nostril, face,
> anger---and it occurred to me that the meaning "face" places an
> idiomatic English meaning on @p that is not found in Hebrew.  Thus Gen
> 19.6, "And Joseph's brothers... bowed low to him, noses to the ground"
> means just that.  "Faces to the ground," the usual translation, express
> the English idiom, not the Hebrew.  By saying that @p also means "face,"
> BDB is extending the range of meaning beyond the Hebrew.
> 
> Comments?  Any other places you have noticed this extension?  It would
> seem that Fox's translation should avoid these pitfalls by a rendering
> closer to the Hebrew idiom.
> 
> irene

B. M. Rocine
Associate Pastor
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13208

315-437-6744(w)
315-479-8267(h)