Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Karl,

> In other words, you don’t have a methodology.

HH: I have a methodology. But when I'm critiquing 
obvious errors in your translation ideas (you 
didn't usually give a translation of the verse), 
I don't have to go through all the steps needed 
in a lexical word study.

> What do you do when two or more of the experts 
> that you depend on hold contradictory and 
> mutually exclusive position? How do you 
> determine which position is correct?

HH: I do further research and thinking.

> My answers:
>
> 1) a good methodology does not depend on whether 
> or not we like the results. In fact, the 
> Biblical PoV is not cherry picking the portions 
> of the Bible that we like, tickling our ears. It 
> is taking the whole text, even the portions that 
> we don’t like. BTW, how many times have you read 
> Tanakh, starting with Genesis and reading 
> through Chronicles? In Hebrew?

HH: I felt that you were wrong. It's not just 
that I did not like the results. I've read the 
Bible in Hebrew quite a bit.

> BTW what is your take on my application of my methodology on Proverbs 1:19?

HH: You had:

Such are the roads of those who take a cut of the 
loot; unjust gain takes over the life of its 
owner.

HH: It's all right. I might use a broader 
translation applicable to more settings. I might 
substitute "ways" or "paths" for "roads" and 
"seek" or "take" "unjust gain" for "take a cut of 
the loot." The cognate phrase occurs in six 
verses and seem broader in scope than just taking 
a cut of the loot, although that could work well 
here. Also, I think it is better to say that 
unjust gain "takes away the life." The verb LQX 
is sometimes used for the removal of life (1 
Kings 19:10, 14; Ps 31:14; Jon 4:3).

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard