Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Cindy Smith <cms AT dragon.com>]

Many notes in my English Bible remark, "Hebrew obscure."  I recall 
reading somewhere once, "Hebrew illegible."  Is my memory faulty or 
are there certain passages in the Hebrew Bible that, over centuries of 
copying, are simply illegible?  If memory serves, I read the 
expression "Hebrew illegible" in the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) 
translation.  In Job 19:20, my NAB translates it, "My bones cleave to 
my skin, and I have escaped with my flesh between my teeth," and the 
notes remark, "meaning perhaps that Job has been reduced to such an 
extremity that he scarecely has thin lips over his teeth.  But the 
current Hebrew text of this line is probably corrupt."  Does the word 
"corrupt" mean "illegible"?

Cindy Smith                                Spawn of a Jewish Carpenter
GO AGAINST THE FLOW! \\ _\\\_     _///_ // A Real Live Catholic in Georgia
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cms AT 5sc.com                                  from day to day" Ecclus/Sira 5:8