Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

On Wed, Oct 5, 2011 at 4:52 AM, Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> On Tue, 4 Oct 2011 23:00:17 +0300, Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 10:07 PM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Randall Buth:****
> >>
> >> You wrote: “[G]oats are feminine. Check out עזים. Gen 15.9.  In this
> case
> >> יעל is a female ya`el.”
>
> Is this the right reference?
>
Yes, in my Bible עז משלשת
See Gen 30.35 עזים נקדות too.


>
> > My point is that 'goats' have a masculine looking form and a masculine
> > looking plural, yet they are "feminine".
>
> If יעל/ya`el has a masculine looking form and a masculine looking plural,
> it
> seems that the only reason for not thinking it masculine would be to find
> instances where it is associated with a feminine adjective or verb form.
>  Do
> we have that?  Finding a semantically similar word עז/`ez used as a
> feminine
> (I assume it *is* used as a feminine - I didn't see it in Gen. 15.9 and in
> Gen. 27.9 it is used with a masculine adjective


no, it is not. the adjective goes with the gdyim


> ) is suggestive, but I think


I agree, actually.But I see the name Ya`el as suggesting either
a. a dialect where a common noun ya`el is used,
b.analogical formation based on עז
c. a masculine noun used as a feminine name


> not enough to prove the gender of ya`el.
>
> > So there really isn't any problem in applying ya`el to a girl. the ya`el
> is
> > a goat. A majestic goat to be sure.
> > As for the masculinity of ya`el, is/was there any concord with the other
> > occurrences in the Bible to show that ya`el was always 'masculine-only'?
>
> If there's no proof from concord, it might be reasonable to consider the
> word
> applicable to both sexes, although the fact that a specifically feminine
> form
> יעלה/ya`ala exists would seem to make that a more natural choice for a
> woman's
> name.
>

In things historical, natural and reasonable get overturned by what actual
happens. In those cases we try to explain simply and directly. That is what
my 'goat' explanation is. an explanation, not a proof.



>
> Will Parsons
>

Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life