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b-hebrew - Re: Prepositions with Berakh and Different Types of Hebrew

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  • From: "Paul Zellmer" <zellmer AT digitelone.com>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Prepositions with Berakh and Different Types of Hebrew
  • Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 18:30:05 +0800


No, Jon, I did not tie it to any supposed nature of the stem, nor did I
claim that the phrase you are examining is a smoothing out of the
English. I'm saying that you are confusing the two usages of the
English, "by," one that refers to the channel and one that refers to the
source. "Blessed by YHWH" is a completely different concept than "the
word of YHWH which he spoke by Hosea." The first is genitival, the
second is instrumental. It's interesting that, in a message you sent
out about twelve hours after mine, you yourself replied to Baruch Alster
that the use with lamed is genitival, yet you completely overlooked that
same point in my post. And the fact that it is genitival in the context
you describe, and that your expectation of instrumental would be
inappropriate, sums up the only point that I was making.

The same concept is part of the English genitive. "Blessed of YHWH"
refers to YHWH as the source of the blessing. And, lest you think that
I am stretching the point, compare the verses that Baruch gave you to
verses like Gen 22:18, where beth is used to show that the seed of
Abraham is the *instrument* of the blessing. Baruch's verses show that
YHWH is the *source* of the blessing.

I'm not sure what lexicons you are using, but I have not found any that
interpret BRK in the pi`el as "to put on in a blessed state."

I'm sorry you misinterpreted an overly simplistic, partial impression of
the prepositions lamed and beth. Hope this clears up that I was dealing
with a much more limited scope than you apparently thought I was.

Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Bailey <jonathan.bailey AT gmx.de>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 7:55 PM
Subject: Prepositions with Berakh and Different Types of Hebrew


> So you are saying that the factitive nature of the Piel brk would make
berakhtikha
> leyhwh mean something like "I put you in a blessed state OF yhwh.", or
"I put you in a
> state of being blessed TO yhwh.", both of which one would then render
into
> acceptable English as "I bless you by yhwh."?
>

<remainder snipped to save bandwidth>





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