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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] definite article in Isaiah 7:14

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  • From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] definite article in Isaiah 7:14
  • Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:12:39 -0700

Dear Isaac:

Though that is the meaning as translated into simple prose, I disagree in
that that is a highly poetic statement as stated by Job.

Anyone who has seen how a thick layer of snow makes obscure that which is
below can understand how piles of snow can make unknown that which is below.
I remember one year while living in Bærum west of Oslo, that the first snow
of November was the last to melt in May, where the snow piled up to over a
meter deep making unknown everything below, even the earlier layers (it was
an unusually cold winter).

What was the climate like in Job's day? Was he living in highlands where
multiple layers of snow could accumulate before melting in the spring? Was
the snow making unknown even the earlier layers of snow? A thick layer can
make unknown even wnere it started from.

While studying prose I will allow for a single exception as a reason to
question the definitions given in other dictionaries. In poetry, Job being a
prototypical example of such, I try to translate his poetry into prose
before using it as an example to question the meaning as indicated by the
majority of uses. That snow makes even itself unknown fits the context,
therefore I see no reason to allow the term to have a different meaning than
what the majority of uses indicate what it has, which is "unknown".

In conclusion, I see no reason to use this passage in Job as a basis to
question that (LM עלם means "to be unknown".

Karl W. Randolph.

On 6/13/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

Karl,

The key point is: Do you agree with me that Job 6:16: (ALEYMO YIT(ALEM
$ELEG,

עָלֵימוֹ יִתְעַלֶּם-שָׁלֶג

is "upon them snow will pile itself up" or "upon them snow will accumulate
itself", or not?
Because if you do, then we know the basic meaning of the root (LM.

Isaac Fried, Boston University




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