Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

You are right, an E$-ET XAYIL is always an E$-ET XAYIL, from age 12  
to her last day, and then her daughters become each in her turn an E$- 
ET XAYIL. The whole thing is timeless. Do you want the author to  
declare that she had her eyes open for "sleeper" properties (ZAMM-AH  
SADEH), that she is now keeping her eyes open for "sleeper",  
properties, and even in coming years she will still have her eyes  
open for "sleeper" properties? The poet talks about proven acts in  
the past with the understanding that by virtue of the universal law  
of continuity they will remain such.
When it comes to V-$ALAL LO YE-XSAR, I feel the future promise of LO  
YE-XSAR, there will be never a lack of food. Yet, in MI-ME-RXAQ TA-B- 
IY LAXM-AH, I see TA-B-IY as timeless, as merely she-bring-it, with  
gramaticalization thrown to the wind.
The word XAYIL from the root XL, has an L indicating elevation.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 2, 2011, at 11:32 AM, fred burlingame wrote:

> Hello Isaac;
>
> I enjoyed your story of hebrew family life.
>
> Females (and others) today however, seem to have a different  
> interpretation of these verb tenses. Rather than recounting the  
> mother's "past" actions, in the week preceding shabat; the אשת  
> חיל (e-shet ha-yil) rehearses the woman's actions as the  
> "present" attributes of the mother?
>
> http://www.hillel.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8427B98-3F42-4F74-A355- 
> AA9088FF8E15/0/eshet_chayil.pdf
>
> http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ 
> ejud_0002_0006_0_06079.html
>
> Do you conclude that the formal and literal meaning of these verbs  
> includes past tense, the above comments notwithstanding?
>
> And חיל of course represents a most interesting word. 1 samuel  
> 2:4 conveys "strength." But Isaiah 26:17 implies "twisting" in pain  
> of child birth. What is the root meaning that can provoke such  
> opposite usages?
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Wed, Feb 2, 2011 at 9:52 AM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> 1. DAR$-AH is present? E$ET XAIL is the main shabat-night PIUT,  
> sung before meal with great gusto, extolling the virtuous and  
> diligent deeds of Mrs. Busy-Busy (who is sitting beaming at the  
> table opposite her husband, Mr. GEBER-GEBER, with all her children  
> around her K-$TIYL-EY ZEIT-IYM) during the previous week (during  
> the week Mr. GEBER-GEBER is busy sitting at the town gate with  
> "ZIQN-EI AREC").
> 2. VA-TA-AS is: (and it came to pass that)-she-do. The past is  
> indicated by the attached verb VA.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University