Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Peter:

Your examples are right, where we are dealing with the grammatical )Y$ (in 
the same manner English used the "he") to refer to the indeterminate third 
person.

However, the example brought up by Dora from the context indicates that we 
are dealing with a man as opposed to a woman. It is still an indeterminate 
reference ("any man") but it is set in contrast to "woman".

It is the context that allows us to recognize the grammatical )Y$.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>

> 
> On 28/02/2005 11:09, Yigal Levin wrote:
> 
> > Hi Dora,
> >
> > I think you've got the meanings reversed. "Ish" means "man" - an adult
> > male - resumablly a male who is past puberty. It never means "man and
> > woman". "Zakhar" is a male of any age. So what is forbidden, is for a 
> > "man"
> > to lie with any male (child or adult).
> >
> >
> >
> But 'ish by no means always refers to an adult male, although 
> doubtless it does in this context in Leviticus. It is commonly used 
> in a much weaker sense "each", where the referents may include 
> women as in Job 42:11, 1 Chronicles 16:3, and inanimate objects as 
> in 1 Kings 7:30,36. And similarly in an indefinite sense, Psalm 1:1 
> is hardly restricted in application to adult males.
> 
> -- Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
-- 
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