Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Rolf:

On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 11:35 PM, Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no> wrote:

>
> R(YWN ("Striving"). This word is found 3 times in
> Qohelet and in no other book of the Tanakh. It is
> believed to be an Aramaic loan word, but we know
> nothing about its origin. In Ugaritic we find
> R(Y, which refers to a shepherd. The same root is
> found in Akkadian as RE'UM. Akkadian has also a
> word written in a similar way with the meaning
> "angry". In Ethiopic we find the word RA(AYA with
> the meaning "herd" and "shepherd". The Ge´ez
> lexicon connects RA(YA with Aramaic RYWN) with
> the meaning "thought". This Aramaic word is found
> in Daniel 2:29; 5:10. The word is found in the
> DSS. In Mishnaic Hebrew R(YWN is used in the
> meaning "desire," "thought," and "greed".
>
> Is the R(YWN in Qohelet taken from the root R(Y
> whose core meaning is "shepherd" and "herd? That
> is possible. While "striving" is far away from
> "shepherd," very different meanings may go back
> to the same root. Just think of QRN whose core
> meaning is "horn". The sense "ray of light," and
> the modern Hebrew sense "fund" (=a place where
> money is put, just as liquids were stored in
> horns) seem to be far away from the core meaning
> "horn", but still the origin is the same.
>
> So what is the origin of the root R(Y? The
> Ugaritic and Akkadian evidence show that the root
> existed in the days of Solomon. What its core
> meaning and references were in the Hebrew
> language in the 10th century B.C.E. we simply do
> not know. Could this root or a similar one have
> been used in the sense "striving" in the 10th
> century? That can of course not be ruled out. To
> use R(YWN in Qohelet as evidence for a
> post-exilic origin of the book, and of a
> Proto-Mishnaic language, simply is unwarranted.
> That is a violation of the principle that
> "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,"
> and it represents an invalid syllogism.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rolf Furuli
> University of Oslo
>
> I understand R(YWN as being from the same root as R(( to be displeasing.
This is not the same root at R(H to feed. In the context of Qohelet this is
displeasure of spirit, which fits the context (I’m going from memory, as I
am away from the office with only my netbook computer).

Hence this is evidence not of proto-Mishnaic Hebrew, rather a meaning found
neither in Mishnaic Hebrew nor any of the cognate languages pointing to an
older, hence pre-Exile, usage.

Karl W. Randolph.