Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

to chris and jim,

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1. to chris

the comparative category is larger than just the "A is more than B". for it
contains not only the word MORE but also the word MOST (A compared to its
entire group) and even the word TOO (A compared to some accepted norm). 

in ruth 1:12 indeed TOO is implicated, although it does not appear. she
was comparing herself to the norms of her society.

ZQNTY (with the M- following) is not "i am (have become) old" but 
"i am (have become) TOO old", as indeed observed in this thread by 
one or two members in response to your question.

thus, for example, in a society phantacized by some of our more 
(chauvinistically and otherwise) imaginative members, if ruth was 
7 she might have concluded she was too old to marry.

of course, the age can be debated, since it is much more interesting than
linguistics. but ruth, wiser than the abovementioned members , did not 
reveal her age which, in an equally chauvinistic society might have been
easily 40 years more than her daughters-in-law, hence clearly 
beyond the medically accepted age of bearing children - 

 - now and, a fortiori,3500 years ago.

actually, she further explains that in order to generate a (jewish
rather than a goy!) husband for her daughters-in-law she needed at 
least 20 more years. and he would still need to accept a much 
older wife, perhaps in her 50s?...again, beyond the age 
to bare children.

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2. to jim,

if we look at the 10 patriarchs after shem, some of which supposedly lived up
to 500-600 years of age, they all had their firstborn at the age of ~30. 

odd, isnt it?

in view of this, maybe the challenge is to re-interpret the word 
WYXY, not the word $NH.

nir cohen

>>>De: Chris Watts <dekruidnootjes AT eircom.net>
Cópia: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Para: "Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>
Data: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 21:10:38 +0100
Assunto: Re: [b-hebrew] ruth 1:12
Don't understand how you can see the comparative in this sentence,  
the impediment yes, how would you translate this as a comparative?  
comparing to what?  She's comparing her age to what?  sorry a bit  
lost here.

in ruth 1:12 i see both the comparative and the impediment. as to her  
age,

i leave the speculations to the experts...

nir cohen