Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Schmuel <schmuel AT escape.com>]

Hi b-hebrew,

Proverbs 5:16 (KJB)
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 

>HH: I accept Gesenius. I cannot search for unmarked questions, but they 
>occur now and then, based on context for the most part.

Schmuel
Would it be an interesting exercise to find one to three of those unmarked 
questions, and then look up how such phrases are considered by Rashi, Ibn 
Ezra and Radaq (in particular) ?  And it would also be interesting to know if 
David Kimchi (Radaq) discusses Proverbs 5:16.

We know that Rashi and Ibn Ezra (and the Targum) did not consider Proverbs 
5:16 an interrogatory.  Perhaps we will find  that the other unmarked 
question verses are also interpreted differently by the rabbinics than it is 
by some of the modern translators, and that the interrogatory usage is very 
debatable -- even if  unlikely, this is definitely possible, we would only 
know by looking..

And if they were clear unmarked questions, and the rabbinics also considered 
the other verses as interrogatory, their unwillingness to do so on Proverbs 
5:16 would still stand out.

Either way, I value their understanding highly, and I believe the King James 
Bible 
translators did the same.  My understanding is that the 17th century 
semiticists
were most attuned to Kimchi, and were generally well-read in the rabbinics.  
This
partly came out of the 16th century Hebraic revival of which Sebastian 
Munster was
one of the major figures, as discussed by Pinchas Lapide in "Hebrew in the 
Church".

It is amazing how many people are not really aware of this history, and try 
to assign
semitic ignorance to the Cambridge and Oxford scholars.  I have seen a 
variety of 
folks who thought that the King James Bible wasn't really translated from the 
Masoretic
Text, but from the Greek OT or the Vulgate.  We had a little of that type of 
dissing here
on this thread, which I had let pass by without comment.  To any such folks, 
I recommend 
reading about the scholarly background of Lancelot Andrews and the other 
translators. 

Shalom,
Steven Avery
Queens, NY
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic/