Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Matthew Anstey" <manstey AT portal.ca>]

Gday all,

Thanks for all the help on enclitic mems, ipps, verbless clauses, and
leprosy. It will all be used.

This time I have a simpler question about the use of bilti in Gen 21.26. It
seems best to fit into the description of "exceptive clause" in W&O 38.6. In
interlinear format:

wegam           'anoki          lo'     shama`ti        bilti           hayyom
and.also        myself          not     I.heard.[it]    except          today

Is the meaning do you think, "Nor have I heard of it until today". If bilti
is best rendered as "until" here, then we will probably gloss it as "until"
and attach a note, but I justed wanted other opinions before doing this. Is
it possible that the sentence means something else? Is BDB correct in
implying that bilti forms an exceptive clause when preceded by lo'?

Thanks very much,
Matthew Anstey
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