Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

karl,

literally, i read "the image-of-the eyes   [ MAR)E, n ]    is better than the meanderings of the soul    [ HALAK, n  ]".

conjectured meaning: "think less and observe more". this fits well into the philosophy expressed in qohelet in general.

i base my reading on the form HALAK (masoretic xataf patax), an abstract noun. pere might
enlighten us more on this form. modern words of the same general family are
$MAD, $KOL, GMAR, GVAV, PXAT, GRAR, KLAL, DRA$, P$A+, SRAQ, PRA+, SBAK, BDAL, SFAR, KFAR, GZAR, QRAV, S)OR, PGAM.
their trade mark is P-shva.
DLY, NHY, SXY, for naxei LH.
i cannot say how many of them are biblical.

meaning:
HALAK (meander, motion, tendency. literally, the process of going(not quantifiable)). is close to:
MAHALAK (move, way, distance, proceeding. literally: the result of going, as M(SH is the result
of doing, same as MAX$AK the result of obscuring). but MHLK is used biblically to quantify distance:
MHLK 3 YMYM: the result of a three day walk.

since HALAK (n) may be confused with HLK (v) (which, i believe, is the case now!!!!), it is only
used in smixut. i dont know if it appears more times in this way in BH.

modern use:
HALAK-RUAX mood/public tendency. literally: the way the wind/spirit is blowing.
HALAK-NEPE$   psychological state, i.e. the way the soul goes. the meanders of the soul.
HALAK-MAX$AVA: a thought process, a way of thinking etc.

biblical use:
i imagine is similar to the modern one in the sense that HALAK is used as meander (n).
HALAK-NEPE$: the meander of the soul. reflections, thoughts, the inner dialogue, etc etc.

also, under this interpretation, MR)H-(INIM (vision-of-the-eyes, smixut) is parallel to HALAK-NEPE$
(meandering-of-the-soul, smixut).
-----------------------------

so, the way i see it, WHO walks in this phrase is the sole ... figuratively speaking. the problem i have with your
and isaac's reading is exactly this: you do not make clear WHO does the walking and why.

>>>But how do you get “being absorbed with thoughts” from HLK NP$?

nir cohen

>>>> On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 08:42:06 -0800, K Randolph wrote
>
> On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 7:19 AM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br> wrote:
>

karl,
>
> טוב מראה עינים מהלך־נפשׁ גם־זה הבל ורעות רוח
>
> 1. i think you should include with your questions an explanation
> why you reject the usual interpretations, which remains an enigma
> for most of us. i personally see nothing wrong with them here, that
> would require a total grammatical reshuffle of the clause.
>