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  • From: "Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>
  • To: "Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>, "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Long-nosed
  • Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 22:16:38 -0700

Dear David,
 
The following is quote from TWOT, Vol. 1, page 72, by V.P.H. (Victor P. Hamilton),
 
    " 'arek. "Long." Appears only in the construct for 'erek, never in the absolute. It is used fifteen times. It is used ten times in connection with God, four times in connection with man (Prov 14:29; 15:18; 16:32; Eccl 7:8), once in connection with the wingspread of a bird (Ezk 17:3).
    Applied to either God or man it is used most frequently in construct to the word 'appayim, and is translated "longsuffering, slow to anger/wrath.: Literally, when the Bible says God is "longsuffering" (Ex 34:6; Numb 14:18; Ps 86:15, etc.) it reads "God is long of nose." When he is angry, his nose becomes red and burns. It may be questioned whether in the living language the idioms had not already dropped their etymological associations and did not merely mean to be longsuffering and to be angry. When he is compassionate his nose becomes long, so long in fact that it would take forever to burn completely."
 
I hope this helps?
 
En Xpistw,
 
Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 9:37 AM
Subject: Re: Long-nosed

All I have handy here is my BDB CD-ROM, which lists all occurrences of the words I've indicated. The entry for harah translates "burn, be kindled, of anger", and compares with cognates: Aramaic Pa'el, cause fire to burn; Arabic (which I unfortunately can't read), "burning sensation, in throqt, etc..haron is translated as (burning of) anger; it can occur alone or in combination with 'af. My guess is that haron as anger is a short form of haron 'af. hori, "burning", always occurs with 'af..
BDB gives as the opposite of 'erekh 'apayim - qetsar ruah,m "short of wind/breath" or 'i$ hemah.
As for the secondary literature, you'll have to do a library search! I suggest you start with HAL (the latest English version of Koehler-Baumgartner).
Hope this helps,
Jonathan
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 2:50 PM
Subject: Long-nosed

I guess heffalumps don't get angry then, eh?  :-)
Seriously, do you have any references for this?  It makes sense, but
I'd like to do a little more reading on the subject of idioms and such.

>
> Hori 'af - "burning of the nose" - is an idiom for anger.
> Hemah, another word for anger, comes from the root hmm, "be hot".
> If one has a long nose, the heated air cools down and does not cause anger so quickly.
> Jonathan
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Shoshanna Walker
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 6:59 AM
> Subject: RE: The OT?
>
> >
> > 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)
> >
> That still doesn't explain the origins of the idiom itself.
>
>
>
> If it's in the Torah, the origin is G-d
>
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Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Don't let your mind wander. 
It's too little to be left alone."



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  • Long-nosed, Dave Washburn, 08/25/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Long-nosed, Jonathan D. Safren, 08/25/2002
    • Re: Long-nosed, Bryant J. Williams III, 08/26/2002
    • Re: Long-nosed, Dave Washburn, 08/27/2002

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