Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>]

Karl,

I have not followed the thread you quoted, so forgive me if I am off  
point or repetitive.

I looked back at my notes from my Classical Hebrew narrative class  
when we read through this section of Samuel. As you mention, both H 
$KM and H(RB, are pointed as "verbs" - hif inf abs. As the inf abs is  
largely used as a verbal complement,  we understood this as an  
adverbial phrase, probably a hendiadys, which would be translated by  
a prepositional phrase in English as "from early in the morning until  
late at night" (see HALOT, under $KM entry 1d).

The Targum to Samuel (which would be Jonathon) translates both as  
aphel participles, which corroborates the Masoretic pointing, though  
it does not prove the issue, only that they were probably translating  
from the MT.

I would not be inclined to read the two words as nouns since $KM only  
refers to rising early in the hifil binyan, thus a noun built on the  
root would reflect that mishkal, ie with some sort of prefix. $KM as  
a noun already refers widely in Semitic to the shoulders or back of  
the neck. If the inf abs were being used as a substantive I think we  
would need another H for the article.

Of course, this is the only occurrence of (RB as a hifil verb  
referring to doing something late at night, but it is a logical  
extension and I would be more inclined to read it as parallel to H 
$KM, rather than the other way around.


Peter Bekins
Grad Student, Bible and Comparative Semitics
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, OH

> Dear All:

> As I was reading through 1 Samuel, I noticed that H$KM is used as a
> noun with a definite article prefix, not as a hiphil verb as pointed.
> It is in context with "the evening" as a parallel, indicating the
> Goliath made his challenge twice a day.


> From the context, the word should be a noun, not a verb.

> What do you all say?

> Karl W. Randolph.