Biblical Hebrew Forum

["David Kummerow" <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Karl,

I again suggest that you take a look at the article, commentary, and essay I 
previously mentioned. This may indeed point you away from "the unknown" to 
an actual referent. Indeed, someone or something "unknown" to Isaiah and 
Ahaz would really be no 'ot at all. Also, why would this curious word which 
can mean "young woman" and also "the unknown" be used when an indefinite 
pronoun could have been used which would have unambiguously signalled 
someone unknown? In the absense of the indefinite pronoun and since the word 
seems to always point to a referent, I think a referent needs to be 
determined from the context. I think Webb's proposal fits the best.

David Kummerow.


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
> >
> > On 14/04/2005 08:22, Karl Randolph wrote:
> >
> > > ...
> > >
> > > I prefer Pshat to Drash. This is Drash based on the insistance
> > > that the term must refer to an object, in particular a female of
> > > the human persuasion. But a feminine noun can also indicate that
> > > it refers to an abstract concept, such as in this case “the
> > > unknown”.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > If you prefer the more literal Pshat to speculative Drash, why do
> > you reject an obvious sense based on a well established meaning of
> > the word (and a well established translation and interpretation
> > tradition) in favour of a speculative completely new sense of the
> > word?
> >
> > -- Peter Kirk
> > peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> > peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> > http://www.qaya.org/
>
> 1) Context
> 2) This is not a completely new sense of the word, as it fits into the root 
> meaning of being unknown as well as being a grammatically
> consistant construct.
>
> I’ve already expanded on point #1. As a lexicographer, I am willing to 
> state that the traditional definitions (now that Gesenius and BDB
> are “tradition”) can sometimes be wrong, though generally I try to avoid 
> that. By acknowledging a definition of “unknown”, we have a
> unanimity of action for the context, as well as a clear Pshat reading that 
> needs no interpretation or explanation, Drash, to try to make
> sense out of it.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.