Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Pere:
This question shows the importance of context.

This verse is one of a group dealing with trees. It is while reading the
final clause as a statement that it did not make sense, the whole clause,
not the individual word.

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 9:25 PM, <pporta AT oham.net> wrote:

> Karl,
>
> I realize that LXX took this word (C for "tree" as well (xylon). But... to
> give an answer to your question, I think of a unique possibility: if (C were
> a verb, it would be the Qal Participle, singular masculine, of Y(C, to
> counsel or advice.


The context pretty much rules out using (C as a verb referring to
consultation.


> And then the right vowel with it would be qamats, not tsere.
> In some moods (for instance in Imperative), verb Y(C matches the pattern of
> verbs ayin-waw ((WC <> QWM Gn 13:17).
> Then... maybe this is the case also for the Beynony (where this form (C <>
> QM would be in addition to the usual or regular form having holam (haser or
> male') with (or after) the first consonant).
>

I considered these, but knew of no roots nor words to back up this
speculation. Furthermore, the syntax was still awkward.

>
> Maybe this helps.
>
> Heartly,
>
> Pere Porta
> Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain)
>
> I also considered )DM to be a verb, but no matter how I parsed it, the
context kept bringing me back to the realization that it, too, is a noun.

In response also to Yaakov Stein, I did not expect to find a rhetorical
question in the midst of a series of statements, therefore I tried to read
it as a statement. Upon analysis, as a statement it makes no sense and has
an awkward construction. Hence my question.

However, once the blinders came off my eyes, a reading of this clause as a
rhetorical question is not a common construct, yet at the same time not an
awkward one for Biblical Hebrew. And it fits the context.

Karl W. Randolph.