Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 1/13/07, Yigal Levin wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Can anyone explain the word  הַצְּפִינוֹ֒ "hacepino" - why is there a dagesh
> in the sade and not in the pe?

Whereas I would like to explain it by comparison with other otherwise
unexplained dagesh fortes (as in xami$$im), it appears that the Hiphil
had always no vowel after the first verbal stem letter.  This can be
supported from examples such as EA 256 xi-ix-be-e (=hixbe "hid") as
well as verbal stems with the letter n (ngd, nb+, ndx, npl).  Even in a
case of an absolute suffixed form, the n drops in Jer 27:15.  There is
no evidence then that there ever was a vowel after the first stem
letter as would be required if the dagesh forte ever appeared with the
schewa.  In contrast, such a situation would require that the p would
have a dagesh, like we do not have here.  While all this could still be
explained as a development of Hebrew, Uri's explanation of a simple
error in transmission makes more sense.

Yitzhak Sapir