Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Chris:

> From whence cometh the "confidence"?

This is the closing verse in a passage that uses "throat" and "feet"
to refer to actions, so here it refers to "YHWH will be in your
intestines" where we find "intestines" sometimes used to refer to
strength, and sometimes as a symbol of perversity from its crooked
shape, context will tell which is the correct understanding. This is a
poetic way to say that YHWH will strengthen you, referring to why you
should not fear from the previous verse.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 11/21/06, Chris and Nel <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net> wrote:
> Hallo, in prov 3:26 where it says: "..for the Lord will be your
> confidence...." OR "...for the Lord will be WITH your confidence..."  I know
> that this all appears a bit pedantic, but what is the point of the BeT
> preposition here?
>
> To complicate matters further just read what Zvi has to say (it really
> does'nt click with me, the penny does not drop, he only confuses the issue)
>
> "...It is of course worth noting (which I already did) that the text
> reads...... [prov 3:26]......the point of course is to stress that the Lord
> cannot be identified with 'your confidence'(ugh)!. Instead, because of the
> preposition BeT, the sentence says that the Lord will serve as (behave as/
> act in the capacity of) 'your confidence....." (What's the bl**dy
> difference)?
>
> Make any sense to anybody?
>
> Gesenius, I see, says a little in $119 h and i, but that does not clarify
> the above for me.  Could it be that the difference lies in the fact that
> without the Bet preposition The Lord IS your confidence, ie hope in Him is
> the confidence.  OR with the preposition it signifies more that The Lord is
> in the MIDST of your confidence?  Although I must add the difference really
> is as thin as a cotton strand over the Niagra Falls!!!!!!
>
> Or shall I just stick to the narratives of the bible and leave poetry for
> the poet?  Blow me I'm getting fed up with all this, I think that the tutor
> (a Work/TextBook from Yale university) is a bad instructor, He raises more
> questions by his statements and leaves you dangling in hebraic ignorance and
> your cranial synaptic junctions in gridlock, what he does say leaves you
> hungry for more but, alas, there is no more food in the cupboard.
>
> Allow me a self-pitious, self indulgent mope for awhile, thankyou.
> Chris Watts.