Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Two options I can think of off the top of my head, Jim:


  1.  Updating of the text at a later time to reflect later phonology.
  2.  The waw is a vestige of an old diphthong which eventually evolved into 
a pure vowel in a later stage of the language.

The ון- diminutive suffix is common enough in Hebrew as a native feature that 
there’s really no need for recourse to another language to explain it. It 
really is no big deal.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au
(currently in Cairo, Egypt)