Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Robert D. Rachlin" <rrachlin AT drm.com>]

Dear Karl,

Your thoughtful comments propel me back to the books.

Although the two are related, I’d mention first that my comments were not on 
הבה HBH, which you address, but on יהב  YHB.  Leave Strong aside.  Davidson 
explicates the root YHB as both a verb and as a noun “which some take as a 
verb,” and he refers specifically to Psalms 55:23.  As a noun, Davidson 
(1848) has “burden, trouble.”  Jastrow (1967) recognizes the noun as “bundle, 
load on the back,” but recognizes its origin from the verb, i.e., “that which 
is put on.”  Klein also recognizes YHB as a noun meaning “load,  burden,” but 
gives its derivation as from the verb.  Klein also notes that the nominal 
form is a hapax legomenon, occurring only at Psalms 55:23.  However, I must 
acknowledge that Mandelkern, in his Hebrew concordance (1896), gives יהבך 
YHBK, followed by a question mark, as a third person verb with a suffix.  But 
he also gives יהב  YHB and יהבך YHBK as a noun, again followed by a question 
mark in the former case.  His translation is “onus, met. cura, sors.” He 
treats השלך H$LK as a verb in the imperative mood.

With respect to שלה $LH and your suggestion that the Masoretic points be 
ignored and the possibility that השלך H$LK is in fact a noun with the 
definite article and the second person singular enclitic, I wonder whether we 
don’t have to construe the phrase rather tortuously in order to accommodate 
this reading.  If we treat the root as שלה $LH, i.e., a peacemaker, and יהב 
YHB as a verb, we end up with something like “Your peacemaker will give/put 
you upon Adonai, and He will sustain you.”

Your prosodic point about looking for a parallel construction in the 
following phrase, which contains the Yiqtol form יכלכלך YKLKLK is 
interesting.  You suggest, on this basis, that יהבך  YHBK should, therefore, 
also be read as a Yiqtol verb.  As we all know,  parallelism is common in the 
Psalms, but it is neither uniform nor inevitable.

My fundamental objection to your reading of יהבך YHBK as a verb is that it 
forces us to treat השלך H$LK as a noun, with a resultant reading that, to me 
at least, makes little sense.

That the translators of the NKJV and the Lutherbibel  (“Wirf dein Anliegen 
auf den Herrn”) treat יהבך YHBK as a noun assuredly does not foreclose 
challenge.  The Talmudic and rabbinic traditions are replete with just such 
efforts to examine words and phrases with grammatical and denotative casts at 
variance with the conventional.  Still, in the absence of more convincing 
evidence, I’m inclined to retain my view that יהבך YHBK is not a Yiqtol verb.

Kind regards.

Bob
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Robert D. Rachlin | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
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From: K Randolph [mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 15:21
To: Robert D. Rachlin
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHB in Psalms 55:23

Dear Robert:

Unfortunately for your answer, Strong was not a Hebrew scholar, and as such 
his words are not considered authoritative in discussing the text. Likewise, 
don’t rely on the Masoretic points, as they are wrong often enough so as to 
be untrustworthy.

What you need to do is to analyse the context: is השלך H$LK from the root שלך 
$LK or a noun from the root שלה $LH with a second person singular possessive 
suffix? Should we not be looking for a verb with the same conjugation as the 
following phrase, יכלכלך YKLKLK, in other words a third person singular 
Yiqtol verb with a second person singular object suffix?

Now that you brought up a possible meaning, הבה HBH never has the meaning of 
“burden, lot or fate”, rather “to bring forth, go forth” with the action of 
coming out. This is after looking at more than 20 times that the verb is used.

I look forward to your analysis.

Karl W. Randolph.
On Wed, May 2, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Robert D. Rachlin 
<rrachlin AT drm.com<mailto:rrachlin AT drm.com>> wrote:
The YHB root in Psalms 55:23 is, I'd suggest, not a Yiqtol verb form.  The 
root YHB serves the noun for burden, lot, fate.    There's also the primitive 
verb root YHB (give, ascribe, set) related to the same Aramaic root (give, 
prolong, pay).  But in Psalms 55:23 the noun YHB *can* be related to the 
primitive verb, i.e., lot, fate is  (according to Strong's) a preterite form, 
namely, what has been given.

Robert D. Rachlin | Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
Senior Director & General Counsel
199 Main Street, PO Box 190 | Burlington, VT 05402-0190 USA
Direct: +1 (802) 846-8327<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0846-8327> | Mobile: +1 
(802) 734-6280<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0734-6280> | Main: +1 (802) 
863-2375<tel:%2B1%C2%A0%28802%29%C2%A0863-2375> | Fax: +1 (802) 
862-7512<tel:%2B1%20%28802%29%20862-7512>
Visiting Professor, Vermont Law School
VLS Office: +1 (802) 831-1366<tel:%2B1%20%28802%29%20831-1366>
rrachlin AT drm.com<mailto:rrachlin AT drm.com> | www.drm.com<http://www.drm.com>