Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

The discussion about one handwritten text is missing the point:
to quote Pete in Brother Where Art Thou:
"that [yr'y by] don't make no sense".

Whether the scrape looks like a yod or waw, we need to read it
as a waw. And if someone wants to read the first yod as a waw,
fine, it gives the same sense. wr'w by would mean
"and they will gaze on me [as if in victory]."

As for the idiom involved, I don't know why Karl brought up
"post-Biblical Hebrew" and "again".
[Karl]
>Are you taking post-Biblical Hebrew and applying it to Biblical
>Hebrew, again?
Yitzhaq pointed out that Karl appears to have not understood
a biblical idiom, and 'again'.
I will provide some data for that below. Plus some biblical era
evidence in stone.

The fact of the matter is that r'h +b 'to gaze on' is a biblical
idiom. (And Karl's references with yr' "fear"
merely confirm that a setting/circumstance can be added to a
description of fear and does NOT correspond to Ps 22:18 where
b marks the object of the verb and where it is a person.)
For the idiom relating to 'seeing victory against someone',
consider Psalm 118.7 "and I will see/gaze on my enemies"
= I'll have victory.
Psalm 112:6 "[my heart] will not fear until it sees on its enemies".
Micah 7.10 "and my eyes will see on her [my enemy/enmity]"
the idiom לראות ב 'to gaze upon' was used absolutely with an
enemy as the object and an implied victory by the gazer and a
defeat for the one being viewed.

Since Karl brought up extra-biblical sources I can cite a classic
text in stone from around 800BCE about 50 miles east of
Jerusalem. Fortunately, even though I'm travelling, the text is
available on line. It is a delightful double citation of the idiom,
once in the Hif`il where the king's god is bestowing victory,
and once exactly as in BH.

It's pretty standard Canaanite/Hebrew, with some dialectical
ties to Israelite/northern Hebrew (instead of Judean only).
Because of slight dialectical differences I've added
notes.

Moabite Stone, starting in line 4:

כי. השעני. מכל. המלכן.
(“for he saved me from all the kings”.
standard BH except for 'n' plural ending on 'kings'.
BH normally writes 'w' in hoshia`,
but BH does have examples dropping 'w' with prefix-tenses of
this verb וישע wayyosha` 'and he saved'.)

וכי. הראני. בכל. שנאי |
(standard BH, “and because he made me gaze [=showed me victory]
over all my enemies”. Cf. The Qal idiom 'see b+enemy' Psalm 118.7
“and I will gaze on my enemies.(=after defeating them)”
Compare Jos 7.21 “and I will gaze on magnificent plunder.”
See line 7 below, too.)

עמר(5)י. מלך. ישראל. ויענו. את. מאב. ימן. רבן.
(“Omri King of Israel-and he afflicted Moab many days”
1. preposed Subject outside vav-ha-hippux: compare Gn 22.4, Is 6.1
for preposed phrases with vav ha-hippux in BH.
2. again 'n' with plural noun/adjectives.
3. Second 'w' in the verb way`annew “and he afflicted” has not yet
dropped, like the second 'y' remained in Ex 15:5 yexasyumu.)

כי. יאנפ. כמש. באר(6)צה |
(“for Kemosh was being angry with his land”.
1. 'his' is written with 'h', probably like the 'o' vowel in YeriHo
that was written with 'h' and preserves an older writing style.
There is no reason to suppose an 'Aramaic' 'e'-vowel here,
though even that would not change the meaning of any of this text.)

ויחלפה. בנה.
(“and his son succeeded him [Omri]”)

ויאמר. גם. הא.
(“and he too said”)

אענו. את. מאב |
(“I will afflict Moab”)

בימי. אמר. כ
(“In my days he said thi[s] . . .”)

(7) וארא. בה. ובבתה |
(“And I SAW ON him [wa'ere' bo (ראה+ב] and ON his house.”
(“and I gazed on him and on his house”
= I saw the victory and defeated them!)
Cf. Ps 118.7 “and I will gaze upon my enemies”.
Ps 112.8 “until he will see on his enemies'.
Mi 7.10 “My eyes will see on her (my enmity).”
The idiom is apparently 'absolute', it simply needs to say
“I will see on [my enemies]”, without any extra description.
Implied is the victory of the one doing the seeing and the defeat of the
one being viewed. For a more explicit expansion compare
Ps 37.34 : “and you will see on the cutting off of the wicked.”

וישראל. אבד. אבד. עלם.
(“and Israel perishing perished [avod avad] [for] an age.”
or “Israel perished an eternal perishing  [eved `olam].”
In either case the Moabite king continues his victory gloating.)

With the above biblical idiom in one's repertoire
Ps 22:18 reads very straightfoward --
as implying the gloating of the enemies of the psalmist, as if they think
they are seeing victory.
And as stated, the first letter can be read as 'w' or 'y' and the same
idiom and
sense results. But the 'w' of [yr'w by] only makes good, clear sense as
a 'w', not a 'y'.
So I read it as yr'w by, both the MT and the Qumran fragment.

Incidentallly, whoever put the fragment on the web, circled the 'w' in
red as a 'w', not as a 'y', so they too read it the Qumran fragment way.

blessings
Randall Buth


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth AT gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life