Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>]

Karl, you misunderstood Noam's question. He asked why this word is written with a samekh in modern Hebrew, instead of the sin that is used in the Bible. In a previous post I confirmed that the spelling is Mishnaic, and listed several other examples in which biblical sin is replaced by samekh in Mishnaic Hebrew, and added that the modern spelling of these words usually follows the Mishnaic form, but that the biblical form is also considered correct.

 

Yigal Levin

 

From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2012 7:29 PM
To: Zalman Romanoff
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] וָאֶשְׂחַט

 

Noam:

On Sat, Dec 8, 2012 at 6:09 PM, Zalman Romanoff <flintflintflintflint AT gmail.com> wrote:

In this week's Torah Portion, בראשית פרק מ verse 11 appears the word: וָאֶשְׂחַט

I checked a concordance - this verb appears nowhere else in the
tanakh. What is the source of the modern usage of the verb with a
samekh instead of with a sin as in this verse? Is it mishnaic?

 

First of all, it’s a Sin instead of a Shin, there’s no Samekh there.

 

Secondly, the phrase “blood of grapes” is found, e.g. Genesis 49:11, so it’s not a stretch to consider a metaphorical “slaughter of grapes” to make wine.

Thanks

Noam Eitan,

Brooklyn, NY

Karl W. Randolph.