Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>]

Karl:

Well it looks like I've been misled by Soncino (and King James) again. 
My Hebrew is elementary. All I can see is that Strong says it is RW( in 
the imperative hithpolel, and that hithpolel involves a consonantal 
doubling that gives the two ayins.

If Strong and the Masoretes are both untrustworthy, can you recommend 
better resources for a beginner like me?

You say you don't see David taking offense in the text. It's certainly 
clear in the translation, but ... that rascal Soncino has interpolated 
the word "complains" after "If David comes, who slew the Philistine...". 
But Schottenstein also explains that David has come to "object" to 
something.
I think they're right, and that it can be inferred from the question 
"What if David comes?" and the answer "I must make them friends". God 
has to make them friends because David is angry; why else did he "come"?
Rashi and Maharsha explain David's taking offense in relation to the 
pardoning of Doeg (by the Doreshe Reshumoth). But it seems to me that 
the piece about David is independent of the saying of the D.R.

I don't know whether you think it relevant, but God makes them "friends" 
RY(YM -- which seems to be some kind of wordplay on HTR((Y.

I have also noticed something else: the Talmudic text has inserted a vav 
in its quotation: it has HTRW((Y rather than HTR((Y
What does that tell us?

Gabe Eisenstein