Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Moshe:

I don't blame you for giving this scribe a poor grade for his
penmanship. However, he is consistent in his inconsistency as far as
the forming of the tops of the yods and waws.

Looking at the line above, verse 16, I notice that L$WNY is dim, but
it appears that both the waw and yod have the same top shape. More
clear are the tops of the final yod on MLQWXY and waw on WL(PR have
the same top shape. Looking at verse 17 the two yods in HQYPWNY have
different tops, while the waw has an intermediate shape. Then in verse
18 YBY+W the waw has the same shape as in K)RW. Another variant in
verse 18 is the YR)Y instead of the YR)W in the Masoretic text, which
actually makes more sense grammatically.

Seeing as the waws are consistently about twice as long as the yods,
and the letter in question is about twice as long as yods, that leads
to the conclusion that it is a waw.

Yours, Karl W. Randolph.

On 10/1/06, Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> I am still quite busy but I wanted to get this off for Karl to give
> him some food for thought.
>
> OK look better. :) Compare the vov (yud) with the yod in the word
> m'reiyim (which is also elongated). Both are similar with a similar
> sharp down point to the left on top. This is commonly found in yods.
> The vov in the previous word has a top but it does not have the sharp
> down point. My vote is still that this yud is like the one two words
> earlier. Personally I think this scribe gets a C- for handwriting. :)
>
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> Moshe Shulman   outreach AT judaismsanswer.com 718-436-7705
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