B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Why does Hitchcock's Bible dictionary define כזבא as "Men liers in wait"?
http://classic.studylight.org/dic/hbn/v ... umber=T588

Probably he was guessing that the root of the word is כזב, which means "lie" as in to tell a lie, not to lie in wait. Sounds very sloppy to me.

HALOT gives the meaning as deceptive, meaning waterless, intermittent.

SteveMiller wrote:Probably he was guessing that the root of the word is כזב, which means "lie" as in to tell a lie

Is that just a guess, or is that something everyone agrees on?

Are there any other possibilities?

SteveMiller wrote:HALOT gives the meaning as deceptive, meaning waterless, intermittent.

And isn't that based on the root being כזב?

SteveMiller wrote:not to lie in wait.

Isn't lying in wait kinda deceptive, and isn't all of this based on the root being כזב?

MGWB wrote:

SteveMiller wrote:Probably he was guessing that the root of the word is כזב, which means "lie" as in to tell a lie

Is that just a guess, or is that something everyone agrees on?

This is just a guess.

MGWB wrote:Are there any other possibilities?

There are so many other possibilities that it isn’t funny. The following two questions give a couple of possibilities.

Is this even a Hebrew name, or did the local residents retain an older, non-Hebrew name for the place?

Was the original etymology from כזב or was it related to זוב referring to a place where water was flowing out, or what?

Where we don’t have a listed etymology, we are just guessing, and are more likely to be wrong than right.

MGWB wrote:…Isn't … all of this based on the root being כזב?

Yes, and not only that, but that it’s Hebrew.

Karl W. Randolph.

Thank you.

I take כזב to be a masculine singular noun, and I can understand how the ideas of lying, deception, and lying in wait (to decieve an enemy) could be derrived from this root, but I was curious as to why Hitchcoock would see the plural masculine idea of "men" added by the aleph?

Also, (on the assumption that the word is Hebrew) how could זוב be the root?

Why would the initial ז be replaced by an initial כ?

MGWB wrote:Thank you.

I take כזב to be a masculine singular noun, and I can understand how the ideas of lying, deception, and lying in wait (to decieve an enemy) could be derrived from this root, but I was curious as to why Hitchcoock would see the plural masculine idea of "men" added by the aleph?

Who knows? You’ll have to ask him why.

MGWB wrote:Also, (on the assumption that the word is Hebrew) how could זוב be the root?

Why would the initial ז be replaced by an initial כ?

To me the name looks more likely to be Aramaic, with a possible כ prefix. But that’s just a guess based on ignorance.

Karl W. Randolph.