Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53: In his death?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53: In his death?
  • Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 08:51:36 -0500

Dear Vadim,

Well, since the argument started to deviate into a messianic debate, may I
suggest to concentrate, to begin with, on a single word:

bemotav

It is uniformly translated as

in his death

How so? The word is in plural in every mss, even in Qumran.

So, it is either,

in his deathS,

or, from boma,

his altars

I would love to read any arguments to the contrary.

HH: This is understood by F. Delitzsch to be a pluralis exaggerativus. Forms like it occur in Ezek 28:8,10 and Jer 16:4. It would be used to indicate a violent death, the pain of which makes it like dying more than once. You can also call it an intensive plural; see Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley 124, particularly 124e, which states that there are a number of plurals, found almost exclusively in poetry (sometimes along with the singular), which are evidently intended to intensify the idea of the stem (plural of amplification).

HH: Qumran apparently has BWMTW, which John Oswalt and BHS suspect involves a misplaced W, so that it should be BMWTW, which would involve a singular form.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page