Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Pere:

On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 10:59 AM, <pporta AT oham.net> wrote:

> You would be quite right if the noun "glt" exists. But... only "g(w)lh"
> exists as absolute, as I said (Zec 4:3). Then "g(w)lt" must be in
> construct.
>
> Heartly,
>
> Pere Porta
>
> Your answer is assuming GLT comes from GWLH, it could also come from GLL.
We don't know for certain. That's why I wrote, "We kid ourselves to think we
know Biblical Hebrew well enough to say with absolute certainty…"
When I wrote my dictionary for my own use, I recognized that there are many
times that intellectual honesty compels us to admit that we are not sure
what are the meanings to many lexical items. We can't even be sure how many
there are. While I acknowledge that the Masoretes did an impressive job in
recording the vowel sounds connected with the consonants written in the
text, yet at the same time I suspect that many times those sounds were
recorded mechanically without reference to grammar or meaning that those
sounds represented. Then many modern grammarians and lexicographers can end
up building towers of words upon a faulty foundation. I have seen many
times, some even on this list, where a complex, difficult to understand
sentence can be reduced to a simple, easily understood one by changing one
or two points.

Back to GLT, does it exist as an absolute noun? I learned long ago that
Gesenius and BDB cannot be trusted and that the Masoretic points are often
wrong ("often" in my book is as few as one in a hundred). In the context of
the closing sections of the preceding verse, it is my understanding that we
are dealing with an already dead body, being prepared for burial and the
burial itself. Hence GLT refers to the rolling of the body while wrapping it
in burial cloths.

Yours, Karl W. Randolph.