Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

Now, could we please get on to something productive?  For
example, I'm looking at the phrase 'erek 'apayim in Psalm 86:15,
and I can't help but wonder how "long of nose" came to mean "slow
to anger."  Thoughts?


How about - erech is from the word aroch (long), it takes a long time 
to get angry in an entity that is "slow to anger"

(re apayim, it is related to the word "af", nose, the nostrils of 
which tend to flare up when you get angry - of course G-d doesn't 
have nostrils, this is just to put it in human terms for us)