Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred putnam <fred.putnam AT gmail.com>]

Dear Lloyd,

Word-pairs tend to occur in parallel poetic lines, as you suggest, and the
pairs that you list from Pr 10.1b-c are, of course, semanticaly parallel
pairs *in this verse*, but this is not really the way that the term has come
to be used in the study of ANE poetry (on which see my earlier post).

To use the same example, "wise/foolish" and "father/mother" are word-pairs,
since they occur together, and in this order, not infrequently in the Bible.

But are "makes glad" and "heaviness" a word-pair? [I cite the same version
for consistency.] The piel of SMX [Sorry--I don't have my transliteration
scheme to hand.] occurs 26xx (times) in Biblical Hebrew (15 of which are in
Pss/8xx & Pro/7xx--it is a more-or-less "poetic" form). None of its
occurences parallel TWGH, apart from Pr 10.1. Even in Jer 31.13, where the
"mourning", "joy", "sorrow", "rejoicing", &c. occur--with several "slots"
into which TWGH would seem to fit--it does not occur. This suggests quite
strongly that the verb SMX and noun TWGH are not a word-pair.

TWGH occurs only 4xx (Ps 119.28 (no parallel); Pr 10.1; 14.13; 17.21), so
there is not much evidence upon which to identify them as a pair.

On the other hand, TWGH is either the predicate or subject of Pr 14.13b,
where it occurs with--but does not parallel--the noun SMXH; in Pr 17.21 it
parallels the qal of SMX, but their order is opposite that of Pr 10.1 (TWGH
in 17.21a, qal of SMX in 17.21b). While this implies that these roots were
understood as antonyms--SMX is negated in order to create a synonymous
parallelism--it does not establish their identity as a word-pair; there is
not a large enough sampling to draw this conclusion.

I hope that this makes sense.

Thanks for asking, Steve--this is an interesting line of conversation.

Peace.

Fred

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 6:06 PM, LM Barre <l_barre AT yahoo.com> wrote:

> Words used in parallel members--matching subject, verbs, objects,
> adjectives etc.
>
> A wise son maketh a glad father:
>  but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
>
> "Wise son" is paired with "foolish son," "maketh glad" is paired with
> "heaviness" and "father" is paired with "mother."
>
> Lloyd Barré
>
>
>
> --- On Sat, 2/7/09, Steve Miller <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> From: Steve Miller <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Word pairs in biblical and semitic literatures
> To: "'b-hebrew Forum'" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 1:16 AM
>
> Can someone please explain: What is a word-pair? Thanks.
>
> Sincerely,
> -Steve Miller
> Detroit
> www.voiceInWilderness.info
> And I saw: and behold, a black horse, and he that sat upon it having a
> balance in his hand.  And I heard as a voice in the midst of the four
> living
> creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of
> barley for a day's wages: and do not injure the oil and the wine. (Rev
> 6:5b-6)
> The chariot in which are the black horses goes forth into the land of the
> north. (Zech 6:6a)
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> > bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of James Spinti
> > Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 12:30 PM
> > To: b-hebrew Forum
> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Word pairs in biblical and semitic literatures
> >
> >
> > Not terribly recent, but have you looked at the 3 volumes of Ras Shamra
> > Parallels from Biblical Institute Press?
> >
> > HTH,
> > James
> > ________________________________
> > James Spinti
> > Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
> > Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
> > Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
> > jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
> > Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
> > Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
> > Fax: 574-269-6788
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-
> > bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Olivier Randrianjaka
> > Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 12:53 AM
> > To: george.athas AT moore.edu.au; b-hebrew Forum
> > Subject: [b-hebrew] Word pairs in biblical and semitic literatures
> >
> >
> >  Hi all of you!!I am looking for the most recent works concerning Word
> > pairs studies in Biblical as well as in ancient Semitic literatures, CAN
> > ANYONE HELP?Thanks a lot. Olivier RandrianjakaPhD Student atMission
> School
> > and TheologyStavanger, Norway
> > _________________________________________________________________
>
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-- 
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Fred Putnam

Philadelphia Biblical University

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