Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 24/04/2004 10:26, CS Bartholomew wrote:

> On 4/24/04 8:06 AM, "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
> > > Another example is how references in the text to
> > > the ìQueen of Heavenî (mele'kheth ha-shamayim,
> > > or maybe even malkat ha-shamayim) were corrupted
> > > by the punctuation to ìthe host of heavenî
> > > (melekheth ha-shamayim). (Jeremiah 7:18;
> > > 44:17-19,25)
> > >      
> > HH: My lexicons say that the form in the text of
> > BHS, MeLeKeT, is an unusual form meaning queen,
> > not host. You must be speaking of the variant
> > forms. I am not even sure that ML)KT means
> > "host." You yourself seem to be saying that ML)KT
> > means "queen.": "ìQueen of Heavenî (mele'kheth
> > ha-shamayim)." The LXX here has STRATIA, which
> > means "host." I don't know how the LXX derived
> > STRATIA, but it may be that they took the variant
> > ML)KT to represent MeLa)KaH, meaning workmanship
> > or property, from L)K, and translated it loosely
> > as "host."
> >
> > Yours,
> > Harold Holmyard
> >    
>
> Harold,
>
> LEH (1st ed) shows two conjectures:
>
> stratia,-as+   
>    *Jer 7:18 te stratia tou ouranou to the host of heaven ? cb) h#myM  or
> lmmlkt h#myM for MT lmlkt h#myM to the queen of heaven
>  
>  
...
I'm surprised there isn't a speculation listed something like lml)kt, 
perhaps le-mal'akot "to the (female) angels" or li-mle'ket "to the 
business" or "to the workmanship" (construct). I think this is what Noam 
was getting at although he got his apostrophes mixed up.

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