Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Kenneth & Yitzhak:
I have problems with the change (and I speak as one who often claims the
dots are wrong) for a few reasons (not necessarily in order):

I just checked Lisowski's concordance, and there is not one time in Tanakh
that KWR is written as KR. Are there any times in the DSS that it is so
written?

While I have no qualms questioning the Masoretic dots, I am far more loath
to question the consonantal text.

The text as written makes good sense, there's no need to change it to try to
make sense out of it.

It is very unusual for a noun in the adjectival usage will have a definite
article when the  main noun lacks the same, as your reordering requires. But
then you might argue that it is not in the adjectival usage, rather the
product of the smelting furnace.


The way I read the passage is as follows:
     A useless man furnishes displeasure
     and [it is] on his lips as a branding fire.

)Y$ man
BLY(L a contraction of BL not and Y(L benefit, use
KRH to furnish, as in to provide for
R(H that which is displeasing, which can include punishment for error or
disaster. This is far stronger than the English word but it is not the same
as "evil".
(L upon
&PTYW his lips
K)$ as a fire
CRBT scorching that leaves a scar

Karl W. Randolph.

On Dec 6, 2007 3:34 PM, kenneth greifer <greifer AT hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> Karl and Yitzhak,
>
> I thought Proverbs 16:27 might say "an evil man is the furnace (kaf vav
> resh as kaf resh) of evil (hay resh ayin hay), and upon his lips it (evil)
> burns like a fire." I am not sure if it is grammatically correct this way.
>
>