Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dave,

NA(ARAH is for the young girl being agile, nimble, brisk, sprightly  
and vigorous, as indicated by the presence of the letter R in the  
name. (ALMAH and BTULAH is for her elevation [the letter L], mass  
[the letter M], and thickness of body [the letter B]. I notice that  
YELED, 'boy', has an L too.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Jul 18, 2007, at 8:49 PM, dwashbur AT nyx.net wrote:

> In addition, Judges 21:12 piles up 3 terms, NA(AR, B:TUWLFH, and  
> "who did not  know to
> lie with a man," a rather unusual expression, methinks.  The  
> previous verse says to kill ever
> woman "who knows lying-down with a male" (my own literal  
> rendering).  All this suggests
> that the language being used here is very intensive and hardly  
> normative for regular
> narrative, much less poetry.  I doubt we can infer anything at all  
> about Isaiah from this
> verse.
>
> On 19 Jul 2007 at 10:03, Bill Rea wrote:
>
> > Tory wrote:-
> >
> > > If Isaiah had intended physical virginity to be clearly  
> > > understood he
> > > would have undoubtedly wrote "woman/girl whom no man had known..."
> > > which is the manner in which the Hebrew author of Jdg. xxi 12
> > > expresses physical virginity so as to remove any possibility of  
> > > doubt.
> >
> > This is an assumption on your part. As such you can't elevate an
> > assumption to a fact. The Judges 21:12 can easily be read otherwise.
> > To insist that the author must have added ``whom no man had known''
> > to remove doubt is a reasonable assumption but no more reasonable
> > than believing the author was engaging in repitition for literary
> > effect. Part of the art of Hebrew poetry is in the skill of the
> > use of parallels. It was a well known art form and it is a reasonable
> > assumption the writer was thoroughly familiar with it. A
> > prose writer could also use this device. Since someone brought up
> > the question of how scholarship is done, a scholar should have
> > no difficulty in acknowledging uncertainly where uncertainly
> > exists. The reasons the writer had for adding ``whom no man had
> > known'' in Judges 21:12 are uncertain. And that's a certainty :-)
> >
> > Bill Rea, ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_
> > E-Mail bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz                </   New
> > Phone 64-3-364-2331, Fax  64-3-364-2332        /)  Zealand
> > Unix Systems Administrator                    (/'
> >
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>
>
> Dave Washburn
> But I can't say Sylvester, George!
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