New (to me) Word: עָוָה

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Jason Hare
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New (to me) Word: עָוָה

Post by Jason Hare »

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?
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
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Glenn Dean
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Re: New (to me) Word: עָוָה

Post by Glenn Dean »

I always thought that in the quere that had consonant changes, you always kept the vowels the same. I would of interpreted the quere as meaning the "name" מְמוֻכָן . But guess not, since they definitely intended for one to change the quibbits.
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Jason Hare
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Re: New (to me) Word: עָוָה

Post by Jason Hare »

Glenn Dean wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 10:25 pm I always thought that in the quere that had consonant changes, you always kept the vowels the same. I would of interpreted the quere as meaning the "name" מְמוֻכָן . But guess not, since they definitely intended for one to change the quibbits.
It’s not exactly true, but it is generally true. As a classic example, notice the word ובעפלים in Deuteronomy 28:27. We are provided with the points וּבַעְפֹלִים and the consonants ובטחרים in the qere. If we copy over those points directly, we get וּבַטְחֹרִים. This is clearly problematic. We need to have a dagesh in the tet. So, generally, we know that the Masoretes intended us to read וּבַטְּחֹרִים, and it’s enough to arrive at that with the points that they gave.

I don’t see any reason to read it as you’ve pointed, though. You don’t put qubuts on vav to represent the vowel u. I saw the pointing מְומֻכָן somewhere (don’t remember where), which was an attempt to create the sounds of Memuchan while preserving the consonants. It indicates that the vav is unpronounced and then adds the u vowel after the mem.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
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Glenn Dean
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Re: New (to me) Word: עָוָה

Post by Glenn Dean »

that's a good example (from Deut 28:27) - you're forced to put a dagesh on the tet due to the assimulated def art (whereas in the original the ayin rejected the dagesh so you don't see a dagesh).

Interesting example!

Glenn
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