Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 7:09 PM, K Randolph wrote:
> Randall:
>
> On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 10:12 PM, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> [RB]
>> I repeat the Qumran example, a third time, since you still can't find the
>> infinitive main clause
>> 4Q398 fr 14-17 (4QMMT C 25ff)
>>
>> זכור [את ]דויד שה[ו]א איש חסדים
>> [ו]אפ ה[ו]א [נ]צל מצרות רבות
>> ונסלוח לו
>> ואף אנחנו כתבנו אליך מקצת מעשי התורה
>> שחשבנו לטוב לך ולעמך
>>
>> >> try “w-nisloH lo”.
>>
>>
>> [Karl]  > I read the short quote as an imperative statement.
>> > Morphologically that is a possible reading. And when a statement is
>> > imperative, one expects that the verb contained in that statement to be
>> > imperative as well, even in Biblical Hebrew.
>>
>> The sad thing here, is that those who don't know Hebrew but who follow this
>> list in English might assume that there must be some way for both sides to
>> be right. 'Street wisdom' says that there are two sides to an argument.
>> But here there is no argument. w-nslwH cannot be read as an imperative
>> in the Hebrew language.
>>
>
> Why didn’t you clarify that that was the verb you meant? I thought you meant
> a different verb. That makes this example a case of miscommunication.

Karl,

If I were to discuss the usage of the infinitive in the sentence "When
in the course
of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bonds that have connected them with another," and you thought that I
was speaking
about "becomes" or "have connected," is that miscommunication?  No!  It would
have shown that you can't find the infinitive in an English text.

> ונסלוח לו is nowhere found in Tanakh.

Karl, Randall said this is from Qumran, not from the Tanakh.  Still the form 
is
the absolute infinitive of the Niphal found elsewhere in Biblical
Hebrew.  Compare
Gen 31:30 nikhsoph.  There are additional infinitive forms but this is
one of them.

> That the Qumran document misuses the phrase in a way that it is not found in
> Tanakh shows linguistic corruption,

The Qumran example uses the infinitive in this phrase, but is this
really a way not
found in the unpointed text of the Bible?  Given that the infinitive
of the Niphal
is spelled nksp in Gen 31:30, the examples you provided in Leviticus
could be read
with the infinitive as well.  How do you know that it is not the
infinitive in those
cases? By what evidence do you rule the Qumran speakers, who lived at a time
when Hebrew was still a living spoken language, misuse the Biblical form?

Yitzhak Sapir