Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dianne Burke <biblestudy.burke AT gmail.com>]

Dear Donald,

I completely understand the context of the verse.  I understand that God
wanted to create a partner which corresponds to him.  My question was
regarding the explanation of the Hebrew words and grammar as my colleague
explained it to me.

Dianne Burke


On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 9:19 PM, Donald Vance <donaldrvance AT mac.com> wrote:

> Your colleague is correct. The Hebrew phrase means "a helper/partner (or
> some such) who corresponds to him," (i.e., suitable for him). This is
> actually what the KJV language means as well: "a help meet (=suitable) for
> him."
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> Donald R. Vance
> donaldrvance AT mac.com
>
>
> On Feb 20, 2010, at 1:27 AM, Dianne Burke <biblestudy.burke AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>  Hello,
>>
>> I was discussing this verse with a colleague and he mentioned something
>> that
>> I can't quite understand and just wanted to verify if he's right and ask
>> for
>> your understanding of the Hebrew.  Basically he says that "help meet" is
>> not
>> the proper rendering in Gensis 2:18.
>>
>> My colleague says that the word is not "help-meet".   He goes on to say
>> that
>> "God said he would make a help, "meet for" the man, i.e. matching up to
>> him
>> and his needs."
>>
>> In my limited knowledge of Hebrew, I said help meet is from one hebrew
>> word:
>>
>> 5828
>>
>> 05828 `ezer {ay'-zer}
>>
>> from 05826; TWOT - 1598a; n m
>>
>> AV - help 19, help meet 2; 21
>>
>> 1) help, succour
>> 1a) help, succour
>> 1b) one who helps
>>
>> My colleague's response was to say that's a shame.  He says that there is
>> an
>> error in the English-Hebrew indexing of the text in the Online Bible. It
>> fails to show the other Hebrew word that's there at the end of 2:18 -
>> there
>> definitely is one!
>>
>> He also says that as a secondary proof of the point,that I should note
>> that
>> there are no italics at that point in the KJV, if "meet for him" or even
>> just "for him" were an insertion into the English not backed by Hebrew,
>> the
>> KJV would have put those words in italics.
>>
>> He goes on to say that the Hebrew for "help meet for him" comprises two
>> word-forms, עזר כנגדו, which transliterate (note: Hebrew reads
>> right-to-left) as 'ezr kngdw'. Here 'ezr' is the word "help" that you
>> listed
>> the lexicon summary for, and 'kngdw' is a compound of the prefix 'k'
>> meaning
>> "as", the word 'ngd' (5048) and the suffix 'w' meaning "him".
>>
>> He showed me that the word 'ngd' is used as the OLB lexicon lists:
>>
>> 05048 נגד neged neh'- ghed
>>
>> from 05046; ;{ See TWOT on 1289 @@ "1289a"}
>>
>> AV-before, against, in the presence, about; 23
>>
>> subst
>> 1) what is conspicuous, what is in front of
>>
>> adv
>> 2) in front of, straight forward, before, in sight of
>> 3) in front of oneself, straightforward
>> 4) before your face, in your view or purpose
>>
>> with prep
>> 5) what is in front of, corresponding to
>> 6) in front of, before
>> 7) in the sight or presence of
>> 8) parallel to
>> 9) over, for
>> 10) in front, opposite
>> 11) at a distance
>>
>> prep
>> 12) from the front of, away from
>> 13) from before the eyes of, opposite to, at a distance from
>> 14) from before, in front of
>> 15) as far as the front of
>>
>> Then he concludes by saying that the last Hebrew word-form in Genesis
>> 2:18,
>> though sadly not indexed by the OLB, has a sense along the lines of "as
>> in-front-of him", which the KJV has given as "meet for him".
>>
>> I have never heard anything like this before and I was wondering if you
>> guys
>> could help me understand Genesis 2:18.
>>
>> I look forward to your help.
>>
>> Dianne Burke
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>