Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Clay,

> Psa. 106:9 wyg(r byM-swP
> Psa. 106:9     He rebuked the Red Sea
>
> J.A. Fitzmyer* suggests that g(r is sometimes used as a technical term for
> exorcism. I am specifically focusing on the use of g(r with YAM (sea) as an
> object. Fitzmyer** suggests that the verbal address is not directed at what
> a modern would think of as the sea but rather at some spiritual entity and
> that the verbal address functions as an exorcism.


HH: Did he give proof of his first assertion, that g(r functioned as 
a t.t. for exorcism? Even if he did, I see no particular relevance 
for Psalm 106:9. Practically speaking, what would lead one to think 
the sea needed exorcising? It was just sitting there being a normal 
sea. It is God who did something unusual with the water. The idea 
that it might be exorcism arises from the meaning of the term 
"rebuke," which we think of in terms of people. But the Dictionary of 
Biblical Hebrew says that g(r can apparently mean "drive away," 
citing 4QMa8.1(7).

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard

> Comments? 
>
> greetings,
> Clay Bartholomew
>
>
> *A Wandering Aramean, J.A. Fitzmyer, Page 97.,
>
> **Luke 1-9 (AnchorBible v.28) J.A. Fitzmyer, pages 546,730.
>
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