Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

here, unlike fred's example, the scribe had to choose between two different 
nikuds for the same exact word: 
the neutral KAL and the more emphatic PIEL.   i figure the scribe's logic was 
this:

in isaiah, god breaks. using PIEL might imply that god needed to make an 
effort, so kal was used.

in exodus, the hail breaks the trees. to make the breaking effect more 
dramatic, the more emphatic 
piel was used.

nir cohen

On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 22:35:57 -0500, Isaac Fried wrote
> You may equally well ask Why does the masoretic text employ the form $ABAR 
> in Isaiah 14:5, but the form $IBER in Ex. 9:25? Do they differ in meaning? 
> The answer to this is, methinks, not maybe, but an unequivocal no.
> 
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
> 
> On Jan 31, 2011, at 6:24 PM, fred burlingame wrote:
> I can sympathize with the physician and the attorney, since the future 
> cannot be known with certainty. But here, we are dealing with past events, 
> the 1000 year old masoretic text. And yet no one appears willing to say: 
> "the masoretic text employs two verb forms "yiqtol" and "qatal," rather 
> than 
> one verb form, for the following reason:  ...... " 
> 
> It seems to me the reason for it (two, versus one, verb forms), is 
> susceptible to both identification and articulation in a sentence or two. 
> 
>

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