Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> Vadim, you may not live in Manhattan either, but you obviously don't live 
> in a sun-dry land. As Martin probably knows from Australia and I have also 
> seen, there are very dry parts of Australia and other countries (even of 
> Russia, actually, near the Caspian coast) where lots of small bushes grow. 
> And the same is true of many parts of the Middle East.

The answer consist of several parts.

First, I doubt that siah means "bush." That meaning is rare and dubious, 
with clear etymological connection to the root. I would talk the first 
phrase as, "all small talk in the fields was not [no more]."

Second, herbs indeed don't grow well in sun-dry land.

Third,  the writer used a common hyperbole. When one says, "All is lost," he 
rarely implies "all." When we hear, "All fish had gone from that pond," the 
person is aware that a few likely remained. "All herbs of the field would 
grow not" seems applicable to draught.

Fourth, the common translation "yet" is very misleading. Arabic cognate 
tarem, on the contrary, means something like "cease."

Fifth, for watering of the whole earth geshem is much more appropriate. 
Matar seemingly implies that on the whole land there was not even a drizzle.

Vadim Cherny