Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 19/02/2004 08:54, Søren Holst wrote:

> Shalom, everybody
>
> In some editions of the HB, the last word of the first commandment, in Ex 20,3 as well as Deut 
> 5,7, has what seems to me to be an "extra", unexpected, patach under the final yod: It 
> says "you shall have no other gods 'al-panaya" (ending in -qamats-yod-patach), rather 
> than the expected al-panay (with -patach-yod -- some 9 cases in evidence -- OR in pause with 
> -qamats-yod as in Dan 8,18).
>
> This is found in BHS, in the two Kittel editions I've checked (2nd ed. 1913 (repr. 
> 1925) and 3rd ed. 1937 (repr. 1961), and in the "Keter Yerushalayim" edition 
> (Ben Zvi publishing house 2000).
>
> It is NOT there in Aron Dotan's Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia from 2001 (nor 
> in the Qoren edition).
>
> As far as I can see in the facsimilie edition of Leningradensis (Eerdmans 
> 1998), the patach (or some spot of ink looking like a patach) is clearly 
> there in Ex 20,3, possibly not so in Deut 5,7 (although I wouldn't bet a huge 
> sum on it).
>
> All that the BHS apparatus has to say the matter is that whereas in Leningradensis Ex 
> 20,3 lacks the sof pasuq, this is added by "mlt Mss Edd" (many manuscripts 
> and editions).
>
> So how come the two most important editions of Leningradensis (BHS and Dotan) 
> disagree on the matter?
>
> And if the patach should be there, what is it? A special pausal form?
>
> Any help greatly appreciated
>
> yours confusedly
> Soren Holst, Univ. of Copenhagen
>
>
>
>  
I wonder if the patah here is intended to be an alternative 
pronunciation to the qamets, for use when this is pronounced as not a 
verse end (note that the sof pasuq is missing in BHS etc) and so with 
revia rather than silluq. This would correspond to the word MITTAXAT in 
Exo 20:4 which has both a qamets and a patah under the first tav, as 
well as two accents, indicating variant pronunciations.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/