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.