To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Psalm 20:3 "make fat your burnt sacrifices"
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 14:03:42 -0400
Jim West wrote:
> The only thing I can figure is that the translation you have has rendered
> <heb> weolatheka yedashshenah </heb> by the phrase "make fat your burnt
> offerings". However, this is not exactly accurate, though <heb> dashan
> </heb> does indeed mean to "grow fat", in this context it is a technical
> term for acceptable or favorable. In other words, the psalmist is asking
> God to make his offering fat- so that it will be accepted as an offering.
> It does not mean that God takes some ashes and reconstitutes a cow with
> them. Fat animals were prime sacrifices. The psalmist wants God to make
> em acceptable (i.e., fat).
The verb also D$N also appears in a more familiar context in Psalm 23,
where
the Hebrew that is (I believe) generally translated as "you anoint my head
with oil" is *dishantah ba'shemen ro'shi*.