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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53: pierced?
  • Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 14:51:30 -0500

Dear Vadim,

>The verb XLL is an ayn-ayn root.
Not necessarily. hll can be either a whole root, or ayn-ayn root. The latter
designation applies if one letter is weak, and is dropped. ayn-ayn root
would make
mholal in pual.
The binyan poal, which you mention, is someone's (I think, Gesenius') error.
The form poal is actually gizra of the ayn-ayn roots, with few deviations.

Why I'm insisting on this technical issue? Because the root of meholal is
either ayn-ayn or another root with the same behavior, hol, which makes
meholal into shock or tremble. Consider:

Job26:13 his hand shock the wriggling serpent

Ps29:9 voice of God makes deer tremble and strips forests bare

Job26:5 refaim will tremble [in Sheol]

Prov26:10: like a master who shocks (or, possibly, empties) all, is the one
who hires a fool or a passer-by

Is51:9: are you not the one who... made the crocodile (pharaoh) tremble


This is my preferred translation of Is53:5:

but he is shocked because of our crimes, depressed because of our iniquities

HH: Thanks, I'll stay with the traditional rendering.

However, if you prefer to derive meholal from hll, consider:

hll never means "pierced" (in the Christian sense "pierced with nails or
spear," right?). Killed (with sword) -
yes, but why "pierced?" Is there any clue which eluded me? Or is it yet
another pure conjecture?

HH: Studies in cognate languages show that the verbal root has the idea of piercing. So in the biblical texts people are killed by being pierced through with a sword, or the heart is pierced with pain.

Now let's turn to Meshech and Tubal in Ezek32. Why other tribes are hll, and
only these two are mhll? The difference is surely not incidental.
Unlike other enemies, Meshech and Tubal are predicted to lay dead in the
future tense.
Elam and Assyria are already in Sheol. Then it is stated that Egypt would be
there. Then - about Meshech and Tubal, thus also in future.
Ezek32:27: and they [Meshech and Tubal] won't lay with the mighty, [those
who] dropped from the [ranks of] uncircumcised
Ezek32:28: but you, among the uncirmcised you will be broken
Overall, Meshech and Tubal are not dead yet.
More significantly, every dead nation is said to be noflim beherev, while
M&T: meholal herev. Thus, if anything, meholal is akin to nofel, laid,
emptied - but different from killed.

HH: Thanks, I see no reason to doubt the traditional reading.

Serpent in Job is not rahab, but nahash, which is not a monster. Isaiah was
a native Hebrew-speaker and knew nahash as a minor snake, not a monster. The
tempting nahash was not killed, as you know. Rahab is altogether another
fellow.

HH: Leviathan in Isa 26:1 is no doubt a mythological monster.

Is. 27:1 ΒΆ In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




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