Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 10/08/2005 13:02, Read, James C wrote:

> Thank you very much for this post. I think this puts a firm end to the Yahwah 
> theory.
> It is perfectly clear that the first two syllables are Yeho/Yahu. The only question 
> that remains is the vowel in the final syllable.
> If yhwh is a 3m.s. YiQToL then both Qal and Hiphil take segol as the final 
> vowel.
>
> A final 'a'vowel would support the 'He was ,he is, he will be' theory presented in the 
> article provided earlier from the catholic encyclopedia.
>
>  
I have just noticed a new piece of data concerning the pronunciation of 
YHWH. I have realised that the word YHWH appears to have a construct 
state, in the compound form YHWH C:BA'OT "Lord of hosts". But this 
compound form is consonantally identical to the absolute state (and also 
vocalised the same). If YHWH was simply the spelling of a noun form 
ending in -AH (with qamets), like Y:HOWAH, the construct state would end 
in -AT (with patah) and so be consonantally YHWT. But this form is never 
found. This is perhaps an argument against the form Y:HOWAH. However, 
nouns ending in -EH (with segol) derived from lamed-he verbs are 
consonantally unchanged in the construct (but the segol changes to 
tsere). See GKC 89e,f. This suggests that a form like YAHWEH is more likely.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/