Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Deborah Millier <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com>]

Y. Levin wrote:

> "Lion" does fit the general 
> context of being surrounded 
> by beasties, but not the 
> syntax. Maybe the verb was 
> lost: "As a lion, they _____ 
> my hands and feet"?

I don't think the verb was lost at all.  I think that
this is one of those *rare* occasions where we should
go with the LXX over the MT.  Mine is not a
*theological* statement, but a text-critical one. 
Given the pre-MT witness of the *verb* KA'ARU in the
NAKHAL KHEVER fragment (DJD, vol. 38, col. XI, frag.
9) and the natural inference that vorlage-LXX likewise
read KA'ARU, it seems clear enough that the MT's
less-sensical KA'ARI is the result of a scribe
somewhere along the line failing to sufficently
lenghthen the final VAV in Psa. 22:17, so that later
copyists read it as a YOD.  

B'SHALOM,
-- Michael Millier

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