Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 6:50 AM, K Randolph wrote:
> Dear B-Hebrew:
>
> Proverbs 11:25 reads as follows:
>
> נפשׁ־ברכה תדשׁן ומרוה גם־הוא יורא׃
>
> NP$ BRKH TD$N WMRWH GM HWA YWRA.
>
> It looks as if it should be translated as:
>
> The blessed soul fattens and waters, even he will be feared.
>
> Any comments? Are there alternate readings?

The Hebrew gives the feeling of parallelism, and this is
understandable in the context of a poetic book.
The goal should be to emphasize the parallelism.
The big key -- in the consonantal text -- for the parallelism is the
waw:
a) It gives the breakdown of 3:4 (or, counting maqqef's as one
word, 2:3).
b) The word td$n and mrwh both have semantics of satiation,
and so would most reasonably be place on opposite legs of
the parallelism.
c) We should consider the possibility that ywr) is in the
passive.
d) For alternate readings, why don't you check the Masoretic
text and various translations.

Yitzhak Sapir