Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

I would have thought that the more natural semantic antonym of `QR "to 
uproot" would be NT` "to plant". There is nothing "obvious" about your 
contrary claim. It makes little sense to have Isaac "planted" into the 
alter. In any case, from memory I think that `QD is not so obscure in 
that there are common cognates meaning "to tie, bind". There is nothing 
lame about an English rendering "tied up" or "bound" if that is indeed 
the case.

Regards,
David Kummerow.


> Jim,
>
> The letters L and R don't "interchange". In my opinion the letter L
> indicates elevation and the letter R dispersion/aggregation. Every
> Hebrew root containing the letter R refers to a material state of
> several bodies, such as (RM for a heap of grain versus (LM for
> something tall and massive.
> Some jump on this supposedly L-R interchangeability to relate Hebrew
> and Indo-European words, for instance KAPTOR of Exodus 25:33 to the
> Latin word capitulum. See: Vernes, Maurice: Les Emprunts de la Bible
> Hebraique au Grec et au Latin, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1914, pages 68-69.
> Often, the substitution of R for another letter sharpens the meaning
> of a word otherwise obscure. Take for instance the rare verb (AQAD of
> Genesis 22:9, lamely translated by the NAB as 'tied up', and by the
> JPS bible as 'bound'. Obviously it is the opposite of (AQAR, 'tore
> away'.
> See more in my book at www.hebrewetymology.com
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University