Biblical Hebrew Forum

[kenneth greifer <kennethgreifer AT messianicmistakes.com>]

I have two dictionaries that say that MR can mean "bitterness" as a noun and 
not just "bitter" as an adjective. One is Ben-Yehudah's pocket 
English-Hebrew, Hebrew-English dictionary and the other is The Compendious 
Hebrew -English dictionary by Reuben Grossman. 
   I also found some quotes that might use it as a noun : 1 Sam 15:32, Job 
7:11, Job 10:1, Isaiah 38:15, Ezek 27:31, and maybe Isaiah 38:17. I hope that 
these are right because I don't see how the word can be an adjective in these 
quotes. 
  Kenneth Greifer 

Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com> wrote:
  On 5/17/06, kenneth greifer 'rote:
> The blessing in Deuteronomy 33:9 about Levi is usually is
> translated "...who says to his father and to his mother I have not
> seen him...", but it does not say who "him" is. I think the quote
> does not make sense, so I divided the word "who says" into two
> words that I think make more sense.
> Do you think it could say "behold H) bitterness MR , to his father
> and to his mother I have not seen it (bitterness), and his brother it
> (bitterness) does not recognize, and his son it does not know
> because they have kept Your word..." ?

MR does not mean "bitterness." It means "bitter" as an adjective,
while "bitterness" is "mrh". However, the main problem with this
interpretation is that it still does not make any clear sense and
forces one to follow on with (probably) exegesis which one could
do without this rereading of the words. The standard reading
makes more sense, even if we don't know of an incident where
Levi did not admit to his parents of not having seen "him." In
contrast, "bitterness" is not usually thought of as a word which
can employ such verbs as "know" or "recognize".

> Or maybe "behold bitterness , to your father and to your mother
> I have not seen it, and with his brother it is not acquainted (?), and
> with his son it is not known because they have kept Your word..."

It does not say "your father" or "your mother". "l) hkyr" does not mean
"it is not acquainted." Nor does "l) yd(" mean "it is not known." The
verbs are in the active form, not the separate verb form used for passive
verbs.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com
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