Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Hi, Pere:

On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 10:06 PM, Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com> wrote:

> My dear friend Karl,
>
> firstly... how are you?
>

Thank you, I’m doing well. And you?

>
> Secondly, it seems that after a long rest... we restart our usual work...
> don't we?
> Well, I think that you see this verse in a wrong way...
>
> 1. Which is the wrong pointing?
> 2. Do you really think that the words in the final part are Participles?
> 3. Are you sure that the first half of the verse is the subject of the
> second half?
> 4. The translation (of the first part) you provide... misses the pronoun
> represented by the final mem in TNHM...  So we must understand: "The
> perfection of the upright(s) guide them" (lit. will guide)...
>
> Do you agree?
>
> Pere Porta
> (Barcelona, Catalonia, Northeastern Spain)
>
>
> I appears that we should look at this step by step, and the first one is
your point #4 above: what does the first half of the verse mean?

תנחם is the verb in question. There is no question that it is a Yiqtol third
person singular feminine verb. The question is, which one? I see three
possibilities:

1) נוח to rest. But in this context it should be a Hiphil תניחם which it
isn’t.
2) נחה to lead. Correct me if I am wrong, but would not the form here be
תנחיהם if it were from the root נחה? Can you give any examples of a lamed
heh verb in the Yiqtol fem sing with a masc plural suffix where the heh is
merely dropped?
3) נחם to regret, to feel sorry (for) ⇒ to sympathize, comfort where I
understand it in this context as its derivative meaning of sympathizing,
comforting.

After answering this question, then we can go on to the next one.

Do you agree that this is the best way to tackle this question?

Karl W. Randolph.