New (to me) Word: עָוָה
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 10:46 am
We’re not getting a lot of traffic lately, so I hope everyone is doing well.
In today’s Daily Dose of Hebrew, covering Esther 1:16, we see a couple of interesting things.
First is the spelling of the name מְמוּכָן. This is one of King Ahashverosh’s advisors, as mentioned in 1:14, two verses above. In verse 16, it appears with the vav and second mem in reversed position (מומכן instead of ממוכן). In another thread, we are talking about spelling mistakes in the consonantal text. This seems like a clear one to me. The Masoretes marked it as the impossible מְומּכָן and a qere mark to show that the consonants should be reversed. The name appears also in verse 21 spelled correctly. This looks like a slip of the pen.
Additionally, there is the verb עָֽוְתָה which appears only in one other verse (Daniel 9:5—as עָוִ֫ינוּ in a list of “we have sinned” statements: “[W]e have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances” [NRSV]). The same root appears in the piel in Isaiah 24:1 and Lamentations 3:9 with the meaning of “twist.” It appears a lot more frequently in the hiphil, though. It never jumped out to me in the qal or piel, so I was glad to run into it in today’s episode.
Here’s that episode for your viewing pleasure:
Any comments?
In today’s Daily Dose of Hebrew, covering Esther 1:16, we see a couple of interesting things.
First is the spelling of the name מְמוּכָן. This is one of King Ahashverosh’s advisors, as mentioned in 1:14, two verses above. In verse 16, it appears with the vav and second mem in reversed position (מומכן instead of ממוכן). In another thread, we are talking about spelling mistakes in the consonantal text. This seems like a clear one to me. The Masoretes marked it as the impossible מְומּכָן and a qere mark to show that the consonants should be reversed. The name appears also in verse 21 spelled correctly. This looks like a slip of the pen.
Additionally, there is the verb עָֽוְתָה which appears only in one other verse (Daniel 9:5—as עָוִ֫ינוּ in a list of “we have sinned” statements: “[W]e have sinned and done wrong, acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and ordinances” [NRSV]). The same root appears in the piel in Isaiah 24:1 and Lamentations 3:9 with the meaning of “twist.” It appears a lot more frequently in the hiphil, though. It never jumped out to me in the qal or piel, so I was glad to run into it in today’s episode.
Here’s that episode for your viewing pleasure:
Any comments?