Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Isaac:

I don't know where you get your etymology for the meaning of (LM עלם, but it
is not Biblical Hebrew.

Modern Israeli Hebrew? ??

As a verb it is used around 30 times ± about 2 times, every time it is used
to refer to something that is unknown.

Derivatives, such as (WLM עולם again refer to something that is unknown, in
this case a duration of time that is unknown at the time it is mentioned,
and that included eternity as one option. We had a drawn out discussion
of its duration a while back. Only in post-Biblical Hebrew does it
have a meaning referring to the totality of the compiled creation.

(LM עלם and (LMH עלמה referring to people was of those whose
youth and social position precluded them from having been married, and sex
outside of marriage was a no-no, so they were "unknown" in contrast to
Genesis 4:1.

It's a bit of a stretch to compare (LM עלם with )LM אלם to be mute, though
one could possibly say that one is not likely to be loquacious about what
one doesn't know.

Karl W. Randolph.

On 6/10/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> Kenneth,
>
> The situation in Isaiah 7:14 is crystal clear.
>
> 1. Since the Hebrew HA- is but a variant of the personal pronoun HU,
> HI, 'he, she', HA-ALMAH is surely in reference to a person on which
> the prophet and his listeners were in agreement as to her factual
> identity. Insofar as the prophet did not have you and me in mind at
> that time, he did not elaborate on the status of his ALMAH.
>
> 2. The fact that the prophet uses the bare form HARAH and not HA-
> HARAH is a clear indication  that the ALMAH was not yet known by the
> people of Jerusalem to be pregnant. If she had any difficulties
> conceiving, or the nation was just awaiting the good tidings is lost
> on us by the habitual brevity of the biblical text.
>
> 3. Now to the etymology of the word ALMAH. It is from the root (LM,
> 'pile up, grow up, mature'. The presence of the letter L in the root
> indicates that it refers to an elevated material state. As a verb it
> means 'to cover up, to pile up upon, to wrap over', and hence by
> analogy 'to hide, to conceal'. The derived words (ELEM, and (ALMAH
> mean, to my understanding, correspondingly, a grown boy and a nubile
> girl. Likewise, (ALUMIM is 'the days of youth', as in Job 33:25. It
> is possible that HA-)ALMAH was in deferential use in the sense of Her
> Royal Highness.
> (OLAM is the totality of the compiled creation.
> The root )LM is a variant of the root (LM. Derived from this root are
> the words )ALUMAH, 'a pile or bundle of cut wheat, a sheaf' [in
> present day spoken Hebrew )ALUMAH is also 'beam, shaft', as in )ALUM-
> AT OR. 'a beam of light'], )ULAM, 'a large hall' and )ILEM, 'mute,
> tight, shut, coiled up, seized, overwhelmed, convulsed, inert, faint,
> unconscious'.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University