Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

Dear Jim,  Would you agree with this rather wooden translation?

rav 'okel nir ra'shim
much food is a tillage of poor ones

veyesh nispeh belo' mishpat
but what exists is wiped out in an absence of justice

In the first verset, a verbless clause is expressing what may be or
potential, like we also saw in a proverb recently which claims a fruit is a
tree.  A fruit is *potentially* a tree.  Likewise, a poor man's field is
potentially a lot of food.  I think we could label this kind of figure a
metaphor of potential.

The second verset has harder syntax.  veyesh has the potential produce of
the poor man's field as its antecedent.  belo' means "without" or "in the
absence of," and belo' mishpat is an adverbial phrase that answers "when."
In other words, the potential for produce is wiped out when judgment is
lacking.

The whole proverb, trying a preserve the parallelism of the elements:  Much
food might come from the tillage of the poor, but the potential is spoiled
because no one protects them.

I think the proverb is hard to read because its references are so minimal
and its syntax is so abbreviated.

Shalom,
Bryan


you wrote:

> This verse is unbelievably unclear.  A literal translation makes no sense
at
> all, so if anyone has a suggestion I would love to hear it.  The
> commentators too, by the way, are unsure.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jim
>
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> Jim West

B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206

ph: 315.437.6744
fx: 315.437.6766