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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Benjamin
  • Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 11:33:56 -0500

Dear Dave,

?? I thought the "on" in this verse meant "sorrow," as in "son of my
sorrow/distress," and Jacob chose to give him a less depressing name.

HH: The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew agrees with you, and tags the word in Gen 35:18 as )NH ("oneh"), meaning "distress," "mourning," or "weariness." That is the interpretation I have always heard, but I was trying to look at it from others' perspectives. The text in Genesis has )WoNiY, so it certainly seems capable of being a suffixed form of either the word )WoN ("strength") or )fWeN ("trouble, distress"), as well as the term chosen by DCH.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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