Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 26/07/2004 02:48, Brian & Laureen Powell wrote:

> ... So, I looked up 'established' in my NIV concordance, and it says 
> the Hebrew word in this verse is KWN.
> How did they get from QFMFH to KWN?


This must be an error in the concordance, or your reading of it.

> Does QFMFH, meaning 'standing grain', metaphorically mean to be 
> established? The context of the word implies some such meaning.


Here you are ignoring the stress on the word. QFMFH meaning "standing 
grain" has stress on the second syllable, like almost all nouns ending 
in -FH. QFMFH in this verse is stressed on the first syllable, 
indicating that it is a verb form with a feminine ending. Stress is 
sometimes distinctive in Hebrew (as sometimes in English e.g. two senses 
of "desert"), and is usually clearly marked in the Masoretic text.

--
Peter Kirk
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peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
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