Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Hi Bill,

I do not suspect a corrupted text.

Take the first two phrases of the first verset as adverbials for the kernel
thought, which appears in the second verset.  In other words, the sentence
kernel (here the verb tatsud) has elided from the first verset and appears
in the second.  The reader is in suspense until the second verset reveals
the sentence kernel.  If I were to write the entire notion in the first
verset it might be as follows:

ky be`ad 'ishah zonah `ad kikar lakhem [tatsud]

The second verset, with elided parts reconstructed by parallelism, would be

ve [be`ad] 'eshet 'ishah [`ad] nephesh yeqarah tatsud

The subject of tatsud is intentionally elusive, so that we should translate
with *it*.  Since a translation is difficult, here's a paraphrase:

for on account of a harlot it will hunt (him) until (his last) measure of
bread (is gone),
and on account of a man's (adulterous) wife it will hunt (his) precious
soul.

What is the *it*?  Well, maybe *haunt* would be better than *hunt* in the
paraphrase above.  The consequences of poverty and death make clear that the
"it" is an accounting for sin.  The *it* is expressed in the burning of vv.
27 and 28, the guilt of v. 29, the  thief's restitution of v. 31, the ruin
of v. 32, the dishonor of v. 33, and especially the climactic jealousy and
vengeance of v. 34, which will strip the guilty until he is poor(v. 35).

Grammatically, the feminine subject of tatsud is justified by a preference
in BH for feminine gender for an abstract concept.  Here the abstract
concept is something like "the wages of sin" or as in v. 34, qinah and
xamat-gaber.

Shalom,
Bryan


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

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