Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 01/10/2006 19:01, sujata wrote:
> Peter,
>   Thank you. Is there any other example of such usage of the word "dig/dug" 
> in Hebrew?
>   Thanks,
>   Sujata
>
>   
Maybe not. But this is where I disagreed with Karl: some words are used 
in unique senses in the Hebrew Bible. According to BDB, the verb KRH is 
used in the Hebrew Bible 13 times in the sense "dig", 4 times in the 
sense "get by trade", and once in the sense "give a feast". Now I would 
understand Karl's scepticism about this last example, 2 Kings 6:23, but 
BDB (which is of course century old scholarship) supports this sense 
from an Akkadian parallel. But this total of 18 examples of KRH is not 
sufficient to explore the entire semantic range of the verb. There may 
well be sub-senses, like my suggestion "maul", which would not be 
included, or included only once, in a sample this size of uses of a word.

As a parallel to this, I note that the first 40 or so occurrences of the 
word "bear" in the TNIV Bible 
(http://www.tniv.info/bible/passagesearch.php) are all derived from the 
verb with a meaning similar to "carry". By the kind of argument which 
Karl is putting forward, in 1 Samuel 17:34 the word "bear" in the 
English translation must be understood as derived from the same verb and 
nothing to do with a ferocious wild animal.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/