Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

That's just the point. Gen. 29:32 says that Leah named him Reuben, saying
"because God saw my misery, and now my man will love me". The "ra'ah"
("saw") indicates that there is supposedly an etymological connection
between this sentence and the child's name, buy it's obviously not
one-for-one. What the text does NOT give is the obvious "she called him
Reuben saying: see - a boy!"

Yigal Levin

-----Original Message-----
From: Shoshanna Walker [mailto:rosewalk AT concentric.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 11:07 PM
To: Yigal Levin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Theophoric Names


But where is "my misery" in Reuven?

Shoshanna Walker



> It certainly "sounds" like "reu - ben!", but see Gen. 29:32. That was just
> Ralbag's point - that the reason given for naming a child does not always
> fit the literal meaning of the name. Looked as critically, that is without
> assuming that the stories actually describe the real acts of real people, 
> I
> would say that Reuben was a tribal name, perhaps also the personal name of
> the tribe's "founder". When the story of his birth was incorporated into
> Genesis, the writer had a different point to make - that Leah thought that
> her misery would be alleviated by the birth of her son.
>
> Yigal Levin
>
>
> I thought it was, "Look - a son!"
>
> Shoshanna Walker
>
>
> like Reuben, who was named 'for God has seen my
> misery',


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