Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>]

Dear Karl,

 See my comments below.

Søndag 2. Juni 2013 04:31 CEST skrev 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?

RF: Yes. (LM with two segols refers to a youth, as you observe. One verb (LM 
has the meaning "to be hidden," and another verb written similarly has the 
meaning "to be dark."  In the Hebrew portion of "The Hebrew and Aramaic 
Lexicon of the Old Testament," Koehler/Baumgartner only temporal references 
are given; "long time, duration; future time; a long time back."  I checked 
the use of (WLM in the DSS. I looked at many of the 599 examples and did not 
fine any with local meaning. The mentioned work says: "(WLM meaning "world" 
occurs in post-Biblical Heb." I do not have the text of the Mishna where I 
am, but I remember that the local meaning occurs several times in the 
tractate Avoth—(WLAM HABBA; the order/age to come.

>
> >
> > 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.

As far as I know, no manuscript of the DSS containing Ecclesiastes 3:11 has 
been found. The Syriac Peshitta has (LM) in this verse. In Syriac, in the 
beginning of the first century CE, (LM) could have the references: "an age, 
generation, life-time, era, eternity." (A Compendious Syriav Dictionmary, P. 
Payne Smith, 1903, 1998). So, in Syriac the local meaning was used.
>
> >
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> >
> > Rolf Furuli
> > Stavern
> > Norway
> >
> > Karl W. Randolph.



Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway