Job 16:8 תקמטני noun, verb, or what?

[kwrandolph]

By now is should have become obvious that I’m reading through Job yet another time. In previous times, I skipped verses that stumped me, saying that I’ll come back to them at a later time, when I know more. Well, that time is now.

With this verse, don’t look for a DSS reading, I already checked—it doesn’t exist.

The first three words, ותקמטני לעד היה make up the whole phrase, the verb being היה with the syntax indicating that תקמטן should be the subject. Any clue as to its meaning? Anything from cognate languages? If a noun, then תקמטן is a happax legomenon.

It is connected to a verb קמט though known patterns, found in Job 22:16 where again the meaning seems somewhat questionable.

The rest of the verse makes easy sense.

Any thoughts?

Karl W. Randolph.

[S_Walch]

According to HALOT (Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament):

קמט:
Masoretic Hebrew to heap together, bind;
Jewish Aramaic to draw together, pack, press, bind; ?
Ugaritic personal name qmṭn (Gordon Textbook §19:2238; Aistleitner 2420), but very uncertain since the text is defective, cf. Herdner Corpus text 137 B 3; Dietrich-L.-S. Texte 4, 44:20;
Akkadian. qamādu(m) (AHw. 896b):
1. Akkadian (Old Assyrian, Old Babylonian) ? to fill up;
2. Akkadian (El Amarna) to stow weapons, see VAB 2 text 109:49, but see now CAD Q: 76 for different readings;
Syriac qəmaṭ to tie together, grasp, depress;
Mandaean GMṬ to seize, hold fast, oppress (Drower-M. Dictionary 94);
Ethiopic qamaṭa (Dillmann Lex. 419) not used in I-theme, III/1 taqamaṭa has special meaning to settle, sit down;
Arabic qamaṭa to wrap a baby in swaddling clothes, shackle, bind, bandage a wound (Wehr-Cowan 790b).

LXX translates as ἐπιλαμβάνομαι (to take, seize, grasp) in Job 16:8; and as συλλαμβάνω (to arrest, capture) in Job 22:16.

[Isaac Fried]

Here is my take of the word ותקמטני WA-TI-QMT-E-IY. I see it as being compiled of the fraction WA- which is the Hebrew בא 'and it came to pass', of -TI- which is the personal pronoun אתה ATAH for the performer of the act QAMAT, and -IY which is the personal pronoun אני ANIY for the beneficiary of the said act.

The root קמט QMT itself is a variant of the roots
גמד, גמץ, גמש*
חמד, חמט, חמס, חמץ, חמש
כמז, כמס
קמט, קמץ, קמש
of the common meaning (related to the Aramaic קמע with a common ע standing for צ) 'seize, grasp, clasp, squeeze, crimp', and by implication 'crumple, compress, compact'.

The Hebrew understanding (KJV leaves it as is) of the גמד GAMAD of Ez. 27:11 is 'dwarf, midget', namely a "compressed" person. In spoken Hebrew QEMET is 'crease, wrinkle', and this is how KJV renders this word. NIV says it is 'shriveled'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[kwrandolph]

According to HALOT

Thanks, I don’t have a copy of HALOT.

It appears that this is one of the terms that were forgotten by the time of the LXX, so the writers of the LXX used the meanings found in Jewish Aramaic.

From the context and parallelism is appears that the meaning is rather negative, like oppression.

Jewish Aramaic to draw together, pack, press, bind; ?
Syriac qəmaṭ to tie together, grasp, depress;
Mandaean GMṬ to seize, hold fast, oppress (Drower-M. Dictionary 94);

LXX translates as ἐπιλαμβάνομαι (to take, seize, grasp) in Job 16:8; and as συλλαμβάνω (to arrest, capture) in Job 22:16.

It looks like even the cognate languages don’t give much of a clue, at least not according to HALOT. And the two places where it’s found are not found among the DSS in Hebrew, so we have no clue from that source either.

Job 22:16 looks like it has a copyist error, that the fourth word should have been עתיד or a similar word (which the LXX doesn’t translate), which would then fit the idea that קמט has an idea related to instability. That idea fits both contexts.

Oh, how difficult at times is lexicography!

Karl W. Randolph.

[S_Walch]

From the context and parallelism is appears that the meaning is rather negative, like oppression.

I was thinking that. The meaning of "oppress" in the Mandaean language really stuck out to me when I saw it in HALOT.

"You have oppressed/crushed/overwhelmed me" would make sense, even in the Job 22:16 passage.

Could we even have a sense of "overpowering/subduing" someone, if indeed קמט has some sort of resemblance to seizing/grasping? Literally "grasped/seized/held to the point of being unable to move; overpowered, immobilised, subjugated"?

Oh, how difficult at times is lexicography!

Another one of those times in Biblical Hebrew when we have to say, "we don't really know."

[kwrandolph]

From the context and parallelism is appears that the meaning is rather negative, like oppression.

I was thinking that. The meaning of "oppress" in the Mandaean language really stuck out to me when I saw it in HALOT.

It stuck out to me too.

"You have oppressed/crushed/overwhelmed me" would make sense, even in the Job 22:16 passage.

Could we even have a sense of "overpowering/subduing" someone, if indeed קמט has some sort of resemblance to seizing/grasping? Literally "grasped/seized/held to the point of being unable to move; overpowered, immobilised, subjugated"?

Now we are speculating as to how the language developed. Without solid evidence, I’m loath to speculate, as my speculations are too often wrong. It could have gone either way, and there’s no record which way.

Oh, how difficult at times is lexicography!

Another one of those times in Biblical Hebrew when we have to say, "we don't really know."

Another way of saying that we wish we could interview native speakers. But the last of those died about 2500 years ago.

Karl W. Randolph.