Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Shai,

> There is no stretch at all. Read jastrow's citations carefully:
>
> This "frame of mortised shingles" was used as covering both to the oven
> (kelim 5, 9) and to the vat (mo'ed qata 2, 2).
>
> In the case of the oven, the limmudim were used to keep the heat inside;
> In the case of the vat, they used it to seal it off with limmudim, in
> order that the wine won't get sour. See the commentators ad loc.
>
> I think it goes very well with the verb XTM, "to seal", in Isa 8:16.

HH: Your proposal does nothing with the suffix on BLMDY in Isa 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.

HH: This should give you pause.

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

HH: This seems the heart of the difficulty. It needs to be sealed up 
with them until such time as the nation as a whole was ready to 
listen to it. The problem with Israel is that it is not really 
following the Lord and has no genuine adherence to His word. So as 
long as this period of rebellion lasts, Isaiah's disciples need to 
preserve and protect God's word. The idea of a seal for the law until 
rebellion is past seems similiar to God's call to Daniel to seal up 
the prophecies until their time of fulfillment:

Dan. 12:4 But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll 
until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase 
knowledge."

                                        Yours,
					Harold Holmyard