To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
Subject: RE: The OT?
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 2002 22:50:29 -0600
>
> Now, could we please get on to something productive? For
> example, I'm looking at the phrase 'erek 'apayim in Psalm 86:15,
> and I can't help but wonder how "long of nose" came to mean "slow
> to anger." Thoughts?
>
>
> How about - erech is from the word aroch (long), it takes a long time
> to get angry in an entity that is "slow to anger"
>
> (re apayim, it is related to the word "af", nose, the nostrils of
> which tend to flare up when you get angry - of course G-d doesn't
> have nostrils, this is just to put it in human terms for us)
>
That still doesn't explain the origins of the idiom itself.