Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Self-mutilation


> Is the word used in Jeremiah 5:7 from GDD meaning cutting out or possibly
hitpolel of GWD to despoil. I personally understand it as meaning "house of
prostitution self mutilates" using the metaphore that the people serving
other gods are like prostitutes, and in that service of other gods they
practice scarification and other self mutilation condemned in Torah. (The
phrase lacks the word "in" so the idea of being "in a house of prostitution"
doesn't fit.)
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>

Karl,

GDD means "to cut". The whole idea of hitpael is that it is reflexive - it
is what you do to yourself. So "hitgoded" CAN mean "to cut yourself", either
purposely or by accident.
But in the case of Jeremiah 5:7, the context does not call for "self
mutilation". What they are doing in the Beyt Zonah is paralleled to
"yin)afu" - committing adultery. "Yitgodadu" means "making themselves
Gedud". In English you might say "trooping to the brothel".
The fact that the sentence doesn't have an "in" is no problem. The
preposition is often left out, especially in verse. Look at Zech. 6:10: "and
come [into] the house of ...".

Yigal