Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 20/06/2004 13:02, wattswestmaas wrote:

> Beste Reiner, hoe gaat het in Nederland??
>
> Thankyou, but I am really trying to get deeper into this root because of the
> odd places where it is written in tanach and also the fact that words such
> as 'sorrow' and 'destroy' have much more plainer hebrew variants than this
> root.  I understand that in hebraic thinking there is an idea of
> "...entwining, braiding nothingness..." for example psalm 7 (the man
> conceives evil).  Also I am thinking whether or not a subtle idea in
> translation of  "DISFIGURMENT" could be meant/construed in place of destroy.
>
> Groetjes, Thankyou  Chris, Ireland.
>
>  
Hebrew XBL is (according to BDB) related to two quite different Arabic 
words with different letters and sounds for the first radical. According 
to many scholars, this suggests two different pronunciations in early 
Hebrew. One of the Arabic verbs (with a pharyngeal fricative rough H 
sound) means "bind"; the other (with a uvular fricative KH sound) means 
"corrupt or render unsound" or (in another form) "be deranged (in mind)" 
(quoting BDB here). BDB links the words XABAL "act (ruinously) 
corruptly) and XEBEL "destruction" with the latter root, and the other 
senses to the former root. The details are uncertain, but the evidence 
suggests at least that it is dangerous to try too hard to find a common 
meaning.

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