Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yaakov Stein" <yaakov_s AT rad.com>]

Karl, 

Thanks for your comments.

Regarding concordances, they are mostly stuck in an older stratum
of Hebrew grammar, where P(( verbs were considered the same as PW( ones,

rather than the more modern view of related, yet distinct roots.
Either way, Deborah plays on the connection in her famous
)RW )RWR YW$BYH.

Getting back to my point, I am trying to ascertain whether
we can interpret )RH as "collect dripping liquid"
rather than "gather fruit".

Your counterexample is Psalms 80, where you want
to use W)RWH as "gather", although there are no fruit
around, nor gathering to be done. Nonetheless, collecting
dripping liquid is an even harder translation there.

I suggested that this word is actually from the root
for "to curse". As further substantiation, compare
with Malachi chapter 2, where W)RWTY and )RWTYH appear,
and are obviously from "to curse", rather than
"to gather fruit".

If this is the case, the only use we have of )RH is the
one in Song of Songs, which matches "dripping liquid"
at least as well, if not better, than "gathering fruit".

However, as I want to base an interesting conjecture on it,
I certainly need more substantiation than a sole use.
That is why I asked if anyone knows of cognates.

Yaakov (J) Stein