Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Maybe, but your gut feeling goes against the normal rules of Hebrew poetic
parallelism, in which similar words in parallel lines are to be taken as
co-referential.

The "and" joining the words is misleading as in English it tends to suggest
the opposite. Compare "Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my
path". Two lamps or one? In English you might think two (and even suggest
they are the OT and the NT!). But the Hebrew certainly (?) means one lamp,
with one function described in two different ways.

So you need more evidence than a "gut feeling" to show that there is a real
distinction here between the two words.

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Crick [mailto:ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk]
Sent: 02 December 2000 03:14
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Isa. 40:10 -- Reward?

<snip>

 My gut feeling is that the Reward is to his faithful, and the Recompense to
 his enemies.

 Ben
--
 Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
 <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm