Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz>]

Jim wrote:-

> This is a defective spelling of HWD with an archaic 3rd person suffix,
> meaning 'his majesty/glory. Another case of this is Gen 9:21 last word: OHLH
> instead of OHLW.

This would give what is a fairly common understanding such as in my
translation of this verse:

18Therefore thus said YHWH to Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, King of Judah,
``They shall not mourn for him
Alas my brother! Or alas my sister!
They shall not mourn for him
Alas Lord! Alas his majesty!

However, Holladay cites Dahood who proposes an emendation to horah,
literally ``she who conceives'' which suggests that the last versette in
this verse is a parallel to ``Alas my brother! Or alas my sister!''. In this
case one would probably translate the versette as ``Alas my Lord, Alas my
Lady'' or ``Alas Lord, Alas Lady''.

Bill Rea Ph.D., ICT Services, University of Canterbury \_
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