Biblical Hebrew Forum

[yochanan bitan <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

>What do you make of the differing word order of  Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10?
>1:7 The fear of YHWH is beginning of knowledge
>9:10 Beginning of wisdom is the fear of YHWH

nice question/observation.

The above english clauses, in my opinion, correctly identify the subject
and predicate of their respective clauses. Default order is
subject--predicate, and such would be the preferred reading of the above
verses. 

of course, 9.10 continues   ...  veda`at qedoshim binah 
where the parallelistic poetry suggests that da`at qedoshim should be read
by a good reader with "predicate" or "focal" intonation and that bina is
the subject:  "... and understanding is to know 'they-he who are-is' 
holy."
(see is 5.7 for a famous example of parallelistic reversal of order [a.k.a.
chiasmus].)

for more, i would refer you to an article of mine in the new verbless
clause volume from eisenbraun's (ed. C. Miller)

braxot
randall buth