Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Rolf:

(LM is used in 1 Sam 17:56 and 20:22 to refer to a boy who is “unkown”, i.e. sexually inexperienced, the male version of (LMH. But I suspect it had different vowels than below.

On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 10:17 AM, Rolf <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no> wrote:

Dear John,

I am not aware of of a single instance in the Tanakh where the context suggests that (LM does not have a temporal meaning, but have a local meaning.

I don’t know of any such case either.

 

… We should keep in mind that the basic meaning of (LM is a time with hidden length (cf. the verb); it can be eternal, but needs not be eternal. …

I wonder if there are any other homographs with the same consonantal letters, but different meaning? 

The original question referred to Ecclsiastes 3:1. The readers seek a commentary on a book of the Bible in order to be illuminated. Biblia Hebraica has been widely criticized for all the "L's" and other guesses, and to introduce a different reading than the Hebrew text has, when there is absolutely no manuscript evidence for it anywhere, is in my view to mislead the readers. To appeal to the context is in my view very weak; do the interpreter really understand the context? I see no problem in discussing possibilities, when these are portrayed as possibilities, and the reader should be taught that we should not amend the text without solid evidence. Guesses are often masked in different ways, and the readers do not deserve to have the guesses of the scholar.

That’s why when there are particularly difficult passages, I ask, “What do the DSS have on it?” or other documented evidence. I’m very wary of speculation, even of Qere. I’d rather go with documentation, even if difficult, than speculation.

Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway

Karl W. Randolph.