B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

I have expressed a guarded opinion here before that the tsere is a compromise mark for an (earlier?) patax. Some Hebrew was possibly more partial to A then to E.
I find some support for this claim in Deut. 32:28
כִּי גוֹי אֹבַד עֵצוֹת הֵמָּה
NIV: "They are a nation without sense"
where אֹבַד OBAD is with a patax, not the usual tsere, OBED.

In verse 32
אַשְׁכְּלֹת מְרֹרֹת לָמוֹ
אַשְׁכְּלֹת is written with patax under the letter aleph (and with the expected dagesh in the letter kaf), as in Gen. 40:10, not a segol.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

Today, I was listing to a very experience reader recite the story of creation, when he suddenly made a mistake in Gen. 3:12
וַיֹּאמֶר הָאָדָם הָאִשָּׁה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתָּה עִמָּדִי הִוא נָתְנָה לִּי מִן הָעֵץ וָאֹכֵל
reading וָאֹכַל WAOKAL with a patax, but was immediately restored into the correct reading WAOKEL, with a tsere.

Isaac Fried, Boston University