Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

In v.6 M"RFXOWQ (with het/xet not he) comes from RFXOWQ "distant, 
distant place", which is a common word.

In v.5 )IT.:KF-)FNIY surely means (as NIV) "I am with you", then 
MIM.IZRFX starts a new clause (as indicated by the atnax on )FNIY ).

As for where the far away place might be, surely this is deliberately 
left unspecified: perhpas the prophet did not know, but more likely he 
was trying to include all parts of the world in these two verses. No 
doubt if asked to specify, he would have said "for example, Assyria" 
or "for example, Babylon" depending on when he wrote.

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Isa 45:5:  Which East and other problems
Author:  kdlitwak AT concentric.net at internet
Date:    30/03/1999 01:04


  I have both an exegetical question and some basic grammar problems.
On the assumption, which I think is correct, that Isa 43:5 was composed 
in the 7th or 8th cent. B.C. by Isaiah (which I consider he best working 
hypothesis), what East does MZRC and MRHWQ refer to in Isaiah 43:5-6?  I 
presume this east is likely Babylon, though it could have a further 
reach I suppose.  What might that be?  What would constitute far away? 
I'm not convinced that it has to be Babylon, because nothing prior to 
this tells us that is the case (Isa 40, as I'm sure you all know, never 
mentions Babylon).

Regarding grammar, I was able to find the root RHQ but not the form 
RHWQ.  What am I missing?  ALso, more importantly, at the start of 43:5, 
)TKh seems to have no place in the sentence:  "For you I from the East 
will bring your seed.  I don't see what )TKh is doing there.  Sorry if 
I'm not using the general transliteration scheme.  I can't remember it 
at the moment.   These two things are probably obvious, but it's not 
clear in my current state of tiredness.  Thanks.


Ken Litwak
University of Bristol
Bristol, England

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