Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 24/07/2004 21:25, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Yes. A similar term is LPNY "liphney" - literally "in the face of...",
> meaning both "in front of" and and "previous to". As a geographic term, "Al
> peney", "facing", can mean "east of", but also just "across from". In
> Aramaic, the root QDM has many of the same meanings as LPNY in Hebrew.
>
>  
Well, not quite what I mean unless LPNY can also mean "in front of" in a 
*temporal* sense. Can it? Well, apparently it can in Deuteronomy 30:15 
(cf. vv.1,19) and Jeremiah 21:8 where the reference is to the 
Israelites' future life or death. But the link is clearly here to God's 
laws which are commonly said to be LPNY the Israelites, but not in a 
temporal sense. So the best we can say is that this future reference 
sense of LPNY is marginal, in biblical Hebrew. Is that fair?


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