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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Ps. 104:12 - (P)YM

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ps. 104:12 - (P)YM
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 04:25:51 -0700

On 19/06/2004 22:59, Yigal Levin wrote:

Happy Tammuz to y'all,

(P)YM - 'pha'im - in Ps. 104:12, is usually translated "branches". While this seems to
fit the context, the word looks to me more like a plural of (oph, "bird". Any comments?

Yigal


Your suggestion doesn't seem to have gone down well, but in support of it:

1) According to BHS, some MSS offer a Qere reading without the alef. The alef could have been inserted as a mater lectionis to indicate a long A vowel (later written as qamats) according to a common practice in DSS biblical MSS and later Hebrew, which is not usually found in the Masoretic text. But it is not impossible that such an added alef could have crept into a copy which became the basis for MT.

2) LXX has TWN PETRWN, "of the stones", and the Syriac is similar, suggesting at least that the expression was obscure at an early date.

3) `ophayim, the form in the text with the alef ignored or treated as a mater lectionis, is not a plural but a dual, and so might well refer to pairs or mating couples of birds. As such this can fit the context rather well, although not quite strictly grammatically: birds make nests, and pairs of them call to one another, with the implied result that they mate and produce eggs and young, so fitting the wider image of fruitfulness. This connotation is lost by "among the branches".

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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