Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT home.com>]

Dear Peter:
I beg  to differ.  Price has shown no such thing about the Hebrew text.  His
method of counting syllables is to say the least unusual.

[1] Ba-MiDBaR (3) and Ba-'aRaVah (3) are poetic equivalents (one does not
count half vowel simple or compound sheva as a syllable).  [2] PaNu (2) and
Ya$Ru  (2) are also equal in  syllable count, as are [3] DeReKh and M-SiLaH
(again not counting a Sheva as a full syllable, a practice that is surely
standard).  This leaves only [4] the syllabic differences between YHWH and
'eLoHeyNu.  Surely this does not attest a substantial difference in the
poetic length of the two lines; it rather suggests the opposite.

As for the following line, I would ask whether Price himself has ever
actually sung verse 4a?  Here again, both musically and metrically there is
almost perfect balance between Kol-Gey' YiNaSe' (4 beats) and Ve[NOT a
syllable!] Khol-HaR ve[again NOT a syllable!] GiV(a  Y$PL (where the Athnah
demands a pausal form).  Only the Athnah adds a fifth syllable here, and
this is not poetically unbalanced, but a beautiful 4/5 with a pause both
musically and metrically.

Price and others may certainly justify their reading from the LXX and the
NT, as you have shown and no one disagrees.  But Price's treatment of the
poetry of 40:3 and 4a is incorrect.

Charles David Isbell