Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Friday 14 February 2003 19:01, Trevor & Julie Peterson wrote:
> Dave wrote:
> > This is true, but the use of the lePN in the psalm titles could
> > indicate a
> > much earlier stratum of the language, too, since we know from
> > Ugaritic that
> > the l- preposition could sometimes mean "of" or "from."  If - and
> > I stress
> > that it's a big "if" - this is its most likely meaning in the
> > psalm titles,
> > that would very likely preclude those psalms being exilic or
> > post-exilic in
> > origin.  And since the destruction of Ugarit prevents us from
> > knowing when
> > the language shifted away from this genitive/ablative use of l-,
> > it's quite
> > possible that in Hebrew this usage persisted at least into the Davidic
> > period.
>
> I'm not sure how much of a basis there is for comparison. The situation in
> Ugaritic seems to be bigger than just a possible use of li- meaning "from."
> As far as I know, there's no real polarity in Ugaritic prepositions
> attached to direction. So a distinction like to vs. from would be rather
> meaningless in this setting. You just use one preposition to convey motion
> with regard to some object, and context determines the precise nature of
> the motion. (That's not to say they had no means of being more explicit.
> They apparently had an -ah adverbial ending to indicate direction, as in
> Hebrew; but prepositions weren't marked according to all the categories we
> might expect.) The situation is quite a bit different in BH. For that
> matter, it seems like most other Semitic languages made this sort of
> distinction, even as far back as Old Babylonian ishtu. I'm not saying that
> we can't find some overlap between the usage of le- in BH and that of li-
> in Ugaritic. I just think it could be rather difficult to say much about
> timing on that basis.
>

Trevor,
Actually the situation WRT l- = "of, from" in Hebrew is well known, Ugaritic 
merely confirmed that we were on the right track.  Gordon, "Ugaritic 
Textbook" p. 92 in my edition, lists Ps 84:12 "withold from"; 2 Kgs 4:24 
"prevent from"; Gen 16:2 same; Josh 3:12 as well as Josh 4:2,4, all of which 
are clear examples of this usage.  In these and several of the Ugaritic 
examples, I really don't see the idea of "motion" expressed.  Gen 16:2 
"prevented from bearing" hardly conveys motion, and 2 Kgs 14:28 
"restored...from Judah to Israel" appears to convey ownership.  So I really 
don't see where the situation is so different in BH.  Indeed, since Gordon 
also lists numerous examples of b- meaning "from" and describes this usage as 
"not uncommon," perhaps BH is more like Ugaritic in terms of polarity of 
prepositions than we previously thought.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur