Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 00:22:34 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
writes:
> Dave and Trevor:
> 
> If KPH had the original meaning of “to bend”, why not mean bending 
> towards, hence resulting in or causing, or even tending towards? 
> Yes, I know that the idea of perverting justice is a bit of an 
> eisegesis, but I see it implied by the hiding of the bribe. The 
> hiding implies that there is something shady about it, something 
> that neither party wants to be known outside of the giver and the 
> givee. Where one finds hidden bribes, there one usually finds 
> perversion of justice, and anger, even strong fury.
> 
> The concept of hiding also implies a third party or parties who are 
> part of the transaction, but who are not to be privy to the whole 
> picture, in particular to the reason justice is twisted.
> 
> If the gift were to be a sort of MNXH “propitiatory gift” as implied 
> by “bribe” in Proverbs 6:35, there’s no reason to hide it. That’s 
> why I find the idea of bending away, hence deflection, of anger not 
> making sense.
> 
> This looks like a case similar to $KX &#1513;&#1499;&#1495; where if 
> we were to take the Aramaic meaning of finding, we would not have 
> the correct meaning in Biblical Hebrew. 
> 
> Karl W. Randolph.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----

Karl,

That's precisely what's wrong with your approach.  You attempt to make
the meaning of a word in any particular context fit the procrustean bed
of your preconceptions.  As a consequence you end up with a wrong
understanding.

george
gfsomsel