שְׁאוֹל Gen. 37:35
Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 6:48 pm
We read there:
וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי אֵרֵד אֶל בְּנִי אָבֵל שְׁאֹלָה
KJV: "and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning"
The noun שְׁאוֹל = שא-הוּא-ל, 'grave, underworld, netherworld', a place one goes down to, is of the root שאל, which I consider as consisting of שאה-עלה; a root which is furthermore a member of the Hebrew root family:
שאל, שעל, שלל, שול, שלה
יעל, תעל
From the root שאל we have also the common act ,שאל 'ask, request, demand, seek, borrow, extract, take away, lift', and hence the על, 'up', for the answer elicited.
The word שְׁאוֹל and its root שאל are good examples to the fact that the positive and the negative are but a mere reflection of each other. שלל is 'loot', what is taken away (in spoken Hebrew "מספר שלילי" is "negative number", as opposed to "מספר חיובי", not "מספר תלילי"), but תלל is 'pile up' -- what is taken away from one side is being piled up on the other side. Hence the עלה of שְׁאוֹל, to be deep, to be high down, the same way it is in the תְּעָלָה, 'trench, ditch, channel', of 1Kings 18:35
וְגַם אֶת הַתְּעָלָה מִלֵּא מָיִם
KJV: "and he filled the trench also with water"
Being down at the bottom of the תְּעָלָה and looking up makes the sides of the תְּעָלָה appear tall.
Isaac Fried, Boston University
וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי אֵרֵד אֶל בְּנִי אָבֵל שְׁאֹלָה
KJV: "and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning"
The noun שְׁאוֹל = שא-הוּא-ל, 'grave, underworld, netherworld', a place one goes down to, is of the root שאל, which I consider as consisting of שאה-עלה; a root which is furthermore a member of the Hebrew root family:
שאל, שעל, שלל, שול, שלה
יעל, תעל
From the root שאל we have also the common act ,שאל 'ask, request, demand, seek, borrow, extract, take away, lift', and hence the על, 'up', for the answer elicited.
The word שְׁאוֹל and its root שאל are good examples to the fact that the positive and the negative are but a mere reflection of each other. שלל is 'loot', what is taken away (in spoken Hebrew "מספר שלילי" is "negative number", as opposed to "מספר חיובי", not "מספר תלילי"), but תלל is 'pile up' -- what is taken away from one side is being piled up on the other side. Hence the עלה of שְׁאוֹל, to be deep, to be high down, the same way it is in the תְּעָלָה, 'trench, ditch, channel', of 1Kings 18:35
וְגַם אֶת הַתְּעָלָה מִלֵּא מָיִם
KJV: "and he filled the trench also with water"
Being down at the bottom of the תְּעָלָה and looking up makes the sides of the תְּעָלָה appear tall.
Isaac Fried, Boston University