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  • From: "Trevor & Julie Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>
  • To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: Psalm 110 was Re: [b-hebrew] LORD
  • Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 06:03:57 -0500

Dave wrote:

> Gordon, "Ugaritic
> Textbook" p. 92 in my edition, lists Ps 84:12 "withold from";

This is the only instance where mana' takes its complement in l-. It's
difficult to say much about what the sense is here. One could avoid the issue
by treating it something like "withhold with regard to" or by appealing to
the the fact that this is a statement of irrealis. But I'm not trying to deny
that there are ever uses in Hebrew that might head in this direction. My
point is that I think there's a major difference between the circumstances in
Ugaritic and those in BH.

> 2 Kgs 4:24
> "prevent from";

This is not a clear instance. The sense could be, "Do not restrain your
driving for my sake."

> Gen 16:2 same;

This example uses an object suffix and has nothing to do with l-. Indeed,
min- is used with the infinitive, as we might expect.

> Josh 3:12 as well as Josh 4:2,4,
> all of which
> are clear examples of this usage.

I wouldn't think so. The distributive construction in 3:12 and 4:2 seems
quite idiomatic, and there's no clear reason why l- couldn't be understood
simply as "for." Whatever it's doing, it obviously has to be taken with min
as part of one construction, which could end up determining the whole sense.

> 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.

"Motion" was a simplistic summary. That's my fault. My point is that the
Ugaritic prepositions seem to have complete freedom to indicate either
direction in whatever relationships they describe.

> 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.

Or perhaps Gordon is finding what he wants to find. One thing you haven't
addressed is the almost complete absence of min in Ugaritic. This is a major
component in the distinction, because as I indicated before, most Semitic
languages have different prepositions to indicate directional polarity.
Ugaritic is somewhat anomalous in its lack of this feature, and this is my
point. In Ugaritic, the issue is systemic. Prepositions simply can't polarize
the way they do in other Semitic languages. Hebrew may show some oddities
here and there, but the general polarity is present. That's why I'm hesitant
about using Ugaritic as a basis for arguing the kind of point you were trying
to make. It's hard enough to justify this category of usage by comparison
with Ugaritic; to draw conclusions about dating is, as far as I can tell,
altogether uncalled for.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics




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