Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

Shalom!

Thanks for the explanations in your other E-mail.

You asked:

This is so interesting for me. Can you recommend any good books or web 
sites for me to learn about this?

Well, all of what I wrote is at least implicit in standard Hebrew 
grammar books like Gesenius-Kautsch-Cowley, but you would have to wade 
through a lot of irrelevance to find this. Any tips from others on a 
good but simple guide to Hebrew orthography and pronunciation?

Then you wrote:

Yes, but does the name "YAH + WH" mean much grammatically? I always found 
it more logical, since Hebrew names have numerical values and theological 
synonymity with concepts and teachings, that 'YAHU' or 'YAHUWAH' packed 
much more meaning than an empty 'YAHWEH.' One means 'Oh he WHo is' and the 
other one individualy, means "Be And" or "Exist ANd" or some other
strange definition, since "YAH" in hebrew means "be, exist, is" "WEH" in 
modern hebrew means "AND."  Does that make much sense?

Sorry, I'm afraid you just can't do this with Hebrew words any more 
than with English ones. For example (off the top of my head), "father" 
does not mean "fat" + "her" - it did not originally mean a pregnant 
woman! Your Hebrew examples seem to me just as far-fetched, especially 
taking a FINAL waw as meaning "and" as the conjunction is always at 
the beginning of a word. The numerical values were assigned long after 
the Hebrew Bible was written.

Peter Kirk