Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Reginald Wallace Ponder, Jr." <rwponder AT lycos.com>]

Dear John and b-hebrewers:
You wrote in Part -- 
> 
> In Isa. 40:10, YHWH is presented as coming with his reward (sakar) and
> his recompense (pe'ulla).  I've often taken those words to indicate that
> YHWH will be giving everyone his due.  Others, however, argue that the
> reward isn't going from YHWH to other people but is rather the reward
> that YHWH himself receives (namely, the flock mentioned in verse 11).
> 
> Alec Motyer writes:
> 
>    Where reward ... is used with a pronoun (as here) the pronoun 
>    is the person receiving the 'wage' (cf. Ezk 29:18f. where it 
>    is used of the victor getting the fruits of his victory).  So 
>    here, the Lord has received the fruits of his victory, and the
>    recompense which accompanies him/ 'is before him,' 'in his 
>    presence' is the flock of his people which his victory has won
>    (The Prophecy of Isaiah, p. 302).
> 
> I'd be interested in your evaluation of his grammatical claim about
> "reward" with a pronoun.  He doesn't provide examples.
> 
R.W.P.: -- In addition to Isaiah 40:10 (and the similar 62:11), SKR is
used with a pronominal suffix in Gen. 30:18,28,32,33; Gen. 31:8 (2x); Gen.
15:1; Ex.22:14; Deut.24:15; Ex.2:9; Jonah 1:3; and Zech.11:12 (2x).  All
of these cases do seem to fit Motyer's characterization.  I always have
understood this verse (Isa.40:10) as you do, but this new look gives me
something to think about.  Thanks for this post.
Shalom,
Rev. Reggie Ponder, Jr.
Mt. Tirzah United Methodist Church
Timberlake, NC USA


> Thanks in advance for your help.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> John
> 
> 
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