Biblical Hebrew Forum

[fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>]

Hello Isaac:

Thanks for taking the time to furnish your insightful comments.

I suppose what concerns me about this process, follows. At first blush, you
appear to furnish a nice solution, a guide for perplexing and infrequently
used hebrew words. In other words, look east towards the eastern language,
aramaic translation. But I wonder, whether we are wading into a swamp of
quicksand from which there is not return.

1. The meaning of aramaic דגר (de-gar), "heap," in exodus 8:10; seems a bit
different  than the meaning of hebrew דגר (da-gar) in isaiah 34:15 and
jeremiah 17:11, "brood over."

2. The piling up of dead frogs in heaps differs from the arrangement of live
chicks by mother hen under wing. But I can see how the aramaic helps to
understand the hebrew.

3. When we observe targum jonathan of isaiah 34:15 and jeremiah 17:11
however, yet different aramaic words appear to translate hebrew "da-gar" דגר
.

http://cal1.cn.huc.edu/searching/targumsearch.html

4. Further, the famed western language greek translation of isaiah
34:15 veers off in an entirely different direction.

http://apostolic.interlinearbible.org/isaiah/34.htm

I just wonder in light of the above whether we are better off choosing one
version of the text, be it the western language translation, the eastern
language translation, or the hebrew rendition ... and sticking with it ...
for better or worse?

regards,

fred burlingame

p.s. כבד (ka-ved) appears frequently used in hebrew; so the need for
reference to aramaic translation arises not?


On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:31 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

> Here are examples where the TARGUM adds insight into the Hebrew. XAMARIM (
> חמרם ) of EX. 8:10 is rendered by Onkelos DGOR-IYN ( דגורין ), helping us
> with the meaning of the Hebrew root DGR ( דגר ). W-HA-KBED ( והכבד ) of next
> verse 11 is rendered by him W-YAQAR ( ויקר ), helping us with the meaning of
> the Hebrew root YQR ( יקר ).
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
>  On Dec 29, 2010, at 11:05 AM, fred burlingame wrote:
>
>  a. the hebrew: וידברו ; and
>
>
> b. the aramaic: ומלילו
>
>
>