Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>]

It should be worthwhile to pause for a moment and think what "derivation" 
actually means. What does it mean that the noun TW is "derived" from TWH?

Isaac Fried
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 2:26 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The Sade/Ayin-Quf literary device


> Yitzhak:
>
> On 1/6/07, Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com> wrote:
> > ....  The evidence turns up very weak that from such a verb
> > cwh/cwy, someone in Biblical times would have derived the word cw.
> How about a similar derivation of TW from TWH? The verb is found in
> the Hiphil in Ezekiel 9:4. And we have already discussed QW and QWH.
> Or how about RBW from RBH, an alternate form of RBB, or the other
> cases where a lamed hey verb has a derivative ending in a waw?
>
> > And this weak evidence is compounded by the fact that there already is
> > a word (mcwh),
>
> This can indicate a difference of emphasis: MCWH to that which is
> commanded, while CW to the command itself.
>
> > ... that this word is not translated in the Septuagint as
> > "command" (but as you noted appears to be a reading of "$w)"), that later
> > Hebrew would derive a noun "cw)h" (giving an aleph as a place-holder for
> > the final root letter), and that cw is missing from Rabbinic Hebrew.
>
> Don't forget, we are discussing Biblical Hebrew, not later Hebrew.
>
> > ...    You
> > seem to have the evidence stacked up against you. I am not saying it
> > isn't somehow possible.  It just appears extremely unlikely.
> >
> > In contrast, I would suggest correcting Hosea 5:11 cw with the
> > Septuagint's reading "$w)" to read "cw)", and derive it from a cognate of
> > Arabic Dw) "light", which does make some sense in that passage, given
> > the following allusion to moths, which seems somewhat out of place
> > otherwise.
> Look at the context. Moth is in the next verse, put in parallel with
> rottenness. Look at the actions of moths, particularly in their larval
> stage, they get into food, clothing, books, all sorts of things and
> ruin them. The context clearly indicates the destructive actions of
> moths, and it fits right in.
>
> > If you don't like that, I think it's best to just assume that it is a 
> > word of
> > unknown meaning, than to assume that it is "command".
> >
> > Yitzhak Sapir
>
> Yitzhak, I think you don't like the message of Isaiah 28:10, 13 and
> that's why you are fighting so hard to say that it doesn't say what it
> says. Also if the words have meaning, then they don't fit your nice
> little comparison with which you started this set of messages.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
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