Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Dear Bryan:

“My dictionary” is one that I wrote, though not published. I actually started 
it while yet in college, though at the time all it was notes in the margins 
of BDB or Gesenius. I had studied four languages before I learned any Hebrew, 
at least two of them fairly fluently. Then when I looked at the meanings 
given in Gesenius/BDB, they often violated what I had learned how languages 
act. The emphasis for me is not on how best to translate words, but how they 
best fit in the original language. That fits with my desire to learn ancient 
Hebrew as a native, not a translator (as far as it is possible). I later 
transferred and expanded my notes in the margins of Lisowski’s concordance, 
where I’d often look up every use of a word to try to get a handle on its 
meaning.

One of the central lessons I learned in other languages is that words don’t 
have several meanings, rather only one. Some words have broad meanings, for 
example in English “put” has a very broad meaning, while “install” a narrow 
one, a small subset of the meaning in “put”. Similarly, when learning foreign 
languages, one way to learn word meanings is to compare synonyms and 
occasionally contrast antonyms, to recognize the breadth of meaning contained 
in words. Gesenius/BDB failed on both counts above, and I had not heard of 
Halot before. When I saw one entry used only four times in Tenakh (I don’t 
remember which one, that was over a decade ago) being given five definitions 
in Gesenius/BDB, I remember being rather disgusted with such sloppy 
lexicography.

In writing my notes, I go through the occurances of a word, looking for a 
unified meaning, if possible. Sometimes it is not possible, for example 
Esther 2:1 has GZR as an Aramaic loan word, while the Hebrew meaning is, as 
close as I can recognize, to sever. There are a few other words where two 
separate meanings can be discerned, but such are rare in Tenakh.

I am very cautious about using cognate languages, except where context fails 
to give an indication of a word’s meaning, such as many hapax legomai words. 
The same is true of early translations.

Now back to HWH, as a noun, appears to have a meaning connected with 
vocalization in communication. In my last missive I mentioned several cases 
where the vocalization part of the meaning seems to be clear. I don’t know of 
any occurance where a vocalization is linguistically counterindicated. In 
most of its occurances, it appears to be a negative vocalization, such as 
rumors. Hence my understanding of the word as “rumor, gossip, idle words that 
destroy”. The verb seems to follow the same meaning. It is one of the many 
subsets of DBR.

Is my methodology wrong? Why? I have found it works for all other languages I 
have studied, why not also for Biblical Hebrew? I still have a lot of 
questions whether I understand words correctly and I expect that I 
misunderstand at least some words. On the whole, I expect my definitions to 
be more accurate than Gesenius/BDB or anyone who follows their methodology.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>

> Hi Karl, you wrote:
> >
> > My dictionary lists HWH as being "rumor, gossip, idle words that destroy".
> 
> What dictionary is that?  Neither my BDB nor my HALOT says anything about
> rumors.  I am aware of the contexts from which you are getting the rumor
> idea.  As I said, it seems to me that the location of hwh inside contexts
> about evil talk is anecdotal rather than conclusive proof of hwh's semantic
> range.
> 
> Take Eze 7:26 as a for instance:  hovah needs not mean shmu`ah any more than
> "wars" means "rumors of wars."  The collocation of hovah and shmu`ah means
> nothing in and of itself.

Poor example. “Rumor comes upon a rumor and something heard becomes unto 
something heard, and they seek a vision from a prophet (to know about it 
needs communication) and teaching is lost from a priest and advice from 
elders.” There is nothing about “rumors of wars” in the passage. “Rumor” and 
“something heard” don’t have the same meaning, rather they are synonyms, just 
as “teaching (Torah)” and “advice” at the other end of the verse.
> 
> >
> > Where does "love" come in?
> 
> It is a hypothetical root with the Arabic cognate hawiya meaning love.  It
> supposedly gives us the construct state noun havat in Mic 7:3, Pro 10:3, and
> 11:6 meaning capriciousness or desire.  So says HALOT.
> 
> Shalom,
> Bryan
> 
> B. M. Rocine
> Living Word Church
> 6101 Court St. Rd.
> Syracuse, NY 13206
> 
> ph: 315.437.6744
> fx: 315.437.6766
-- 
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