Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Kenneth,

> 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.

HH: Yes, it is also listed in BDB and HAL as a noun.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard

>  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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