Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <lewreich AT javanet.com>]

That's an interesting thought.  I knew that qds (which is usually translated
as "holy") has a basic meaning of dedicated to or devoted to, but hadn't
heard that about khrm, which I'd thought had to do with being restricted, or
off-limits, prohibited.

Lewis Reich

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Ross wrote:
> My understanding is that it literally means "devoted" and hence can apply
> to:
>
> * a "harem" of women devoted to the sultan's good pleasures
> * prisoners of war devoted to destruction
> * a people on an inviolable path to destruction (hence, cursed)
>
> Bill Ross
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lewis Reich [mailto:lewreich AT javanet.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 12:33 AM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: End of Malachi: Kherem.
>
>
> I happened to look at a translation of the last two verses of Malachi
today
> and was somewhat surprised to see "pen avo v'hiketi et ha'aretz kherem"
> (my apologies for not following our usual transliteration scheme)
translated
> as "lest I come and strike the land with a curse".
>
> The traditional Jewish commentaries indicate that some dire destruction or
> desolation is portended here, which is not what I associate with the
literal
> meaning of "kherem", but strikes me as a reasonable interpretation.  What
> puzzled me is why the English would have "curse", rather than, say "strike
> the land desolate"..
>
> Is this the generally accepted rendering in English (I have only one
> translation at hand)?
>
> Lewis Reich
>
>
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