Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Shai Heijmans" <shaih AT post.tau.ac.il>]

Hi all,

I would like to hear your opinion about an idea I have regarding Isaiah
8:16.

All translations identify "limmuday" with "desciples" (NRSV gives: "bind
up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples"), as do HALOT
and BDB.

Yet it doesn't really fit: if the disciples will get the law, why should
it be *sealed* in them?

I propose to interpret "limmudim" as "covering", a meaning this word had
in Mishnaic Hebrew. E.g.: 

Mo'ed Qatan 2,2: Rabbi Yehuda omer, ose lo *limmudim* bishvil shelo
yexmats ("R. Judah says: He may make for it a covering of shingles so
that the wine shall not turn sour").

If we take that meaning of limmudim, then the verse makes more sense:
"bind up the testimony, seal the teaching with a covering"

Does anyone know if this was propsed before?

Thanks,

Shai

--
Shai Heijmans
Dpt. of Hebrew and Semitic Languages
Tel Aviv University