Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jerry Shepherd <jshepherd53 AT gmail.com>]

Hi Stewart,

 

I tend to agree with what David has suggested on this.  Although most translations incorporate something like "gleam" in their rendering of this phrase, I believe they are doing so rather dynamically, such that the absolute word is influencing how the construct is translated.  But more literally, the phrase would simply be, "as the appearance of a stone of Tarshish" (or however one might bring  

vyvi(r>T; over into English).

 

Blessings,

 

Jerry

Jerry Shepherd

Taylor Seminary

Edmonton, Alberta

jshepherd53 AT gmail.com

 

On Sat, Jul 13, 2013 at 8:27 PM, David Kolinsky <hadeesh AT sbcglobal.net> wrote:

I am not near my Hebrew Tanakh, but \YN also means "appearance."  "Like the appearance of a Tarsheesh stone" has almost the same meaning.

David Kolinsky

Monterey Ca

---

From: Stewart Felker <stewart.felker AT gmail.com>
To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 11:12 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] כְּעֵין אֶבֶן תַּרְשִֽׁישׁ - "like the gleam of a Tarshish stone"? (Ezek 10:9)

"Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone."

Is there any evidence from the ancient Near East of cognates of עין being understood similarly as 'gleam'? I know that the eyes can be 'made bright' (from אוֹר) - cf. Ps 13.3. Further, I know that some Egyptian traditions envision the sun as an eye (of Ra, etc.) - but obviously neither of these are really parallel to the use of עין in Ezek 10 (and 1:16, as well).

Stewart Felker

University of Memphis

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew