Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear B-Hebrew chaburim:

A gift in secret ???? anger, and a bribe in the bosom stong anger.

I wonder about ???? It is the only verb in the sentence, which in poetry
often means that it is to be applied to both halves of the verse.

The second half the context is pretty clear, namely the incitement to anger.

Then I ask, what is the purpose of a gift given in secret, if not to bribe?
Hence the translation should read “A gift in secret incites anger, and a
bribe in the bosom incites strong anger”?

This reading also preserves the parallelism of the verse.

LXX adds a word to make it a contrasting parallelism.

Karl W. Randolph.