Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Pere Porta Roca" <pporta AT tinet.fut.es>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 28, 2003 4:32 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Psalm 73:4 "Ul"



> Now another word, )WL (ul) found in Psalm 73:4, possibly also in 2 Kings
24:15, does it have references to power, strength or might, whereas the
dictionary meaning I have seen indicates simply "body"?


Either )WL of Psalm 73:4 or )WL of 2K 24:15 come from the same root  )WL. My
dictionary says its basic meaning is 'be in front of', 'precede', 'lead'.
Now, the word in Ps 73:4 has taken the sense of 'front', 'prominent part'
whereas the word in 2K has taken the cognate sense of 'leading man' or
'noble'. [And we must be careful: )WLY in 2K is Kt but not Qr. Strictly
speaking the word in 2K is )YLY (eyly ha'arets) ('els notables del país',
says my Catalan bible), the same word we find, beside others, in Ex 15:15]
So in Ps 73:4 the real meaning is 'their body'. In my Israeli Hebrew-French
dictionary I read 'bary' )wlam' = robuste, en pleine forme. It is just this
last part of Ps 73:4 that Israeli Hebrew holds in today's hebrew as a sort
of proverb, a stock phrase. This is the real meaning of the word in Ps 73:4.
The sense 'power, strength, might' would be acceptable only if we agree that
a healthy individual is powerful, strong o mighty.

That's what I think about your question.

Pere