Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

I guess you are right, Ian. But the metaphor could have arisen from a word
play (which could be what we have in Job) between two homonym roots, one
meaning "sky" and the other meaning "beat out". I'm sure there are examples
of this kind of thing in English, e.g. where an acronym has taken on the
characteristics of the word it spells, but I can't think of any at the
moment.

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Hutchesson [mailto:mc2499 AT mclink.it]
Sent: 10 January 2001 23:47
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: Firmament

<snip>

If it were in this case a metaphor, that metaphor was in vogue before the
word was coined (as the metaphor would be embodied in the etymology of the
word itself), which seems highly unlikely.


Ian