Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Verses 3 (4) and 4 (5) are giving me problems, are there any clues from
cognate languages, alternate readings that might shed light on these verses?


In verse 3 (4) סלה appears from context to be a verb, used also in Psalm
119:118. In Psalm 119:118 it seems to have the meaning of “to despise”,
making this section of the verse read “he (God) despises the reproaching of
those who (figuratively) sniff around me”.


שאף to sniff, smell, as an animal sniffs around and follows a scent to what
it wants, used metaphorically to refer to enemies “sniffing around” to find
reasons to destroy, and to hunt down their quarry


In Psalm 57:5 (4), לבאם refers to the שאפי in the previous verse, with a
suffixed mem for the plural possessive, any idea as to the meaning? לבא is
never used in Tanakh to refer to “lion”, though לבאה is used once in Nahum
2:12 for “lioness”. The other 13 times its meaning is of “to go” or “going”.


Any idea for the root and meaning of להטים ? It looks like a hiphil from a
verb נטם but is there such a verb? Is this the same as the last verb in
Leviticus 11:43?


Any ideas?


Karl W. Randolph.