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  • From: "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>
  • To: "hebrew listserve" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Is "write...on...heart" simply an idiom?
  • Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 18:16:18 -0400

Dear Michael,

I suggest a couple of points:

1. There is a critical difference between an *idiom* and a *figure of speech*. An idiom is a sequence of words that is semantically restricted so that the sequence operates like a single term, like with the expression "odds and ends." I put odds and ends in the junk drawer in the kitchen. What do I do with only one odd or one end? We don't even know what the question means. In contrast, a figure of speech, is an untraditional use of words used to draw the audience into a comparison or connection, like the word *monster* in the sentence "The monster broke past the offensive line and sacked the quarterback." The distinction between idiom and figure of speech is very important to translators, who need to translate an idiom as a whole and translate a figure of speech as a figure of speech. I mention translation, not because you asked about translation per se, but because of how we approach the two distinct phenomena. We can't understand an idiom by translating the parts because the meaning of the expression is not the sum of its parts. If, however, we can access the comparison in a figure of speech and enjoy being startled by the untraditional use of words, we can put together the meaning of the figure from its parts.

There is a complication (at least one!) that is germane to your query. A figure of speech, once it becomes hackneyed, may become an idiom. An example is the expression *bottleneck.* It started as a figure of speech. A place where a lot of traffic met reminded someone the funnel-shaped opening of a bottle, so he used the figure as a simile or metaphor. In time, the term has become so overused, we may no longer think of the comparison to a bottle's neck. The term may have come into a meaning of its own, something like "place where a lot of traffic jams up." Maybe its an idiom now. Maybe the word's evolution into an idiom is why it seems okay to say, "There was a huge bottleneck on the highway today." If we were still mindful of the figure of speech, we should say, when there is a huge traffic jam, that there was a *tiny* bottleneck on the highway. "Tiny" seems wrong doesn't it?

2. In trying to learn whether a phrase like `al leb is an idiom or a figure of speech, it would be helpful to view a lot of its uses by your author, in this case Jeremiah, and then in even a larger corpus. With the Hebrew expression `al leb in Jeremiah, I think you will find it is a common and consistent expression rather than an untraditional use of words. It means "to think about carefully," I would say. The key thing here is that the expression is both common and consistent. That's an idiom. Since a figure of speech may evolve into an idiom, there will most assuredly be a fuzzy time when it is fully neither and partly both.

Hoping to help,
Bryan


Dear List Members,

YHWH speaking through Jeremiah stated about "the house
of Israel":

...NFTATIY )ET-TWORFTIY B:QIR:BFM W(AL-LIBFM
)EK:T:ABENFH...

"...I will put my torah in their inward [part] and
upon their heart will I write it..." (Jer. 31:33).

My observations and questions revolve around the
phrase (AL-LIBFM EK:T:ABENFH.

A similar expression occurs twice in Proverbs:

KFT:B"M (AL-LWUAX LIBEKF

"write...upon [the] tablet of your heart..." (3:3).

And:

KFT:B"M (AL-LWUAX LIBEKF

"write...upon [the] tablet of your heart..." (7:3).

In Proverbs, the writing is to be done *by* the hearer
of Solomon's torah, the one to whom he refers as
"B:NIY." In Jeremiah the writing of the torah is to be
done *by* YHWH. It seems that a key difference between
the Proverbs usage of the phrase and the Jeremiah
usage of a remarkably similar phrase would be one of
*instrumentality* ("My son, write..." vs. "[YHWH] will
write..."), not of location ("...upon [...] heart").
Right?

In fact, I'm inclined to wonder whether *location*
("upon...heart") really factors in much at all--in
Proverbs, or even in Jeremiah. Isn't it fairly clear
that we have in all three cases the same or a similar
*idiom* ("write...upon...heart")?

I was taught in semantics class that if one
literalizes an idiom one actually obscures the
meaning. This idiom's basic semantic parameters can, I
think, be established from all three contexts,
particularly from the two occurrences in Proverbs.
There neither the writing nor the location of the
writing can be literal.

When we read this understanding back into Jeremiah,
what do we have?

Does anyone else see all three occurrences as
reflections of a single idiom that means something
along the lines of "regard as valuable enough to
obey"? Something like that...?

In both cases in Proverbs, it would appear to be the
responsibility of the "son" to "regard as valuable
enough to obey" Solomon's torah. In Jeremiah's
prophecy, it seems to be YHWH who will aid "the house
of Israel" to "regard as valuable enough to obey" His
torah.

I know that in Jer. 31:33 we still have the parallel
expression NFTATIY ...B:QIR:BFM to contend with. And
it seems to point us "inward" for an answer.
Nevertheless, I am struck by what the Proverbs
passages might tell us about "write...upon...heart,"
and can even conceive that this piece of information
could illuminate Jeremiah's twin phrase ("in your
inward [parts]"). Am I deceiving myself?

Any thoughts?

Shalom from Manila, Philippines,
--Michael Millier



B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13206

ph: 315.437.6744
fx: 315.437.6766




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