Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Very helpful, Yigal!

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia

From: Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
Date: Wednesday, 24 April 2013 3:14 PM
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] full moon vs. appointed time

Hi,

 

Let's begin with Ps. 81:3 (verse 4 in the Hebrew). The first part of the verse says "Blow a horn on the "xodesh". "Xodhesh", meaning "new", is universally understood as referring to the new moon, and is the regular Hebrew word for "month". So, "Blow a horn on the new moon". The second part of the verse is "on the "keseh" for the day of our celebration". Assuming the usual parallelism, "keseh" means something like "xodesh". The usual assumption is that "keseh" is derived from the word that means "cover", so that the "keseh" is the day on which the moon is "covered", mostly hidden, just as the new moon is visible. In other words, the verse refers to the blowing of horns at the new moon, when the moon is "covered". By the way, later Judaism took this as a specific reference to Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, on which the shofar, the ram's horn, is blown.

 

Now for Prov. 7:20. In theory, "yom hakeseh" there COULD mean the same thing: the day of covering, the new moon. This is what Ibn Ezra says (why some translations have "full moon" I don't know). However the context, of a man leaving home and taking his money with him, sounds more like "for a rainy day", so maybe here it means "a day covered with clouds". On the other hand, the Targum has "yoma de'eda" – "day of appointment".

 

 

I hope that was helpful.

 

Yigal Levin