Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 16:24:31 +0200 "wattswestmaas"
<wattswestmaas AT eircom.net> writes:
> Members of the List - Hallo.
> 
> Subject:  KeSJaH  --  EXODUS 17:16  --  War with Amelek
> 
> I have two possibilities here;  either that this word is made up of 
> KeS (in
> the construct and therefore bound to the name of God also in 
> contraction)
> and JaH.  OR the word is linked to a rather forced situation where 
> it means
> 'The Lord has Sworn'.  What is more is that in one bible I have the 
> letter
> 'HeH' on the word Jah with a dagesh signifying JaH as GoD (by virtue 
> that it
> becomes a consonant) and in my other bible I have it without the 
> dagesh
> signifying that this is obviously a vowel situation or direction of 
> purpose.
> 
> In thinking about these 2 translations I cannot help but consider 
> the
> circumstances of Moshe's raised hands in this symbolic struggle as 
> helping
> me to decide on the idea that 'a hand to the throne of GoD is more
> appropriate.
> 
> As always I appreciate your knowledgable insights to make up for 
> where I am
> lacking.
> 
> Thanking you
> 
> Chris.
> _______________________________________________


WaY.o)MeR K.iY_YfD (aL-K."S YfH. MiL:XfMfH LaYHWH B.(a:MfL"Q MiD.oR D.oR

Firstly, is is not KeSJaH but K."S  and  YfH. -- two separate words. 
Secondly, a check of the usage in the corpus would reveal that YfH. (with
the mappiq) is the customary rendering of the word so nothing should be
inferred from this form.  K."S is a hapax which is assumed to be from
KiS.").  It is necessary to account for the loss of the final ) [aleph]. 
I have seen nothing regarding this so what I am saying is purely
speculative.  Consider the noun L"BaB which also appears as L"B.  Also,
though this is a noun (or at least a nominal usage), it would appear to
be analogous to the L " ) [Lamed Aleph or III aleph] verb which will
sometimes have the aleph fall away.

gfsomsel