Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yaakov Stein <yaakov_s AT rad.com>]

Yitzhak

> HALOT on root HWN, writes:
> Arb hwn - to be light, IV with /nafsa/ to take one's life in one's own 
> hands.
> hif. imp. wthynw: to regard as eassy, elliptical expression - to risk.
> Dt 1:41, (Singer, Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 21:160f); cf 
> Job 30:24 for lhn read *lh?hin > *l?hin.

That is very interesting.

So the first sentence says "they risked going up" (i.e., is a bit positive)
while the second says "they brazenly went up" (i.e., quite negative).
Did Moses intially think that they were doing the right thing,
and only afterwards change his mind ?

BTW, I never did understand that line in Job, and this new reading
doesn't really help me.

Yaakov (J) Stein