שײי לשרה יפת: מחקרים במקרא, בפרשנותו ובלשונו (Shai le-Sara Japhet: Studies in the Bible, Its Exegesis and Its Language) (review)

Hebrew Studies 50 (2009) 395 Reviews wnwClbw wtwnCrpb ,arqmb Myrqjm :tpy hrCl yiiC (Shai le-Sara Japhet: Studies in the Bible, Its Exegesis and Its Language). Edited by Moshe BarAsher , Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Emanuel Tov, and Nilil Wazana. Pp. k + 484 + xiv + 396*. Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 2007. Cloth, $25.09. This extensive Festschrift of fifty entries befits the outstanding contributions made by Professor Sara Japhet, whose scholarship is equally significant in the study of the book of Chronicles and other writings related to restoration, Medieval Commentaries, especially Rashbam, and the study of the ancient Hebrew language and literature. Each of these research areas is represented by a segment of the volume, which is divided into Hebrew and English sections. A full bibliography of Japhet’s publications is in the Hebrew section. Although the entire Festschrift is a treasure trove of fascinating and learned pieces that will be of great value for years to come, this review will highlight articles featured related to Hebrew language. David Clines pursues the lexicographical question of “Was There A jrb II ‘Vex’ or jrb III ‘Wound, Bruise, Pierce’ or jrb IV ‘Bar’ in Classical Hebrew?” (pp. 285–304*) Clines analyzes the verbs in Prov 19:26, Job 20:24; 27:22; 41:20 and 1 Chron 12:16 and their proposed Arabic cognates and concludes that none of these additional three definitions listed in HALOT are defensible. In the area of morpho-semantics “On Getting Carried Away with the Infinitive Construct of aCn” (pp. 357–367*), H. G. M. Williamson studies the appearance of the biforms taC and aCn. The latter form of the infinitive construct occurs but four times, once in the same passage as the former in Gen 4:1–16 as well as significantly in Isa 1:14 and in Isa 18:3 and Ps 28:2. Williamson concludes that whenever aCn is present, it reflects a deliberate choice on the part of the composer for specific albeit variable reasons, such as to reduce ambiguity, create alliteration, or make a comparison more prominent. Also in the area of semantics, Jacob Milgrom (The Desecration of YHWH’s Name: Its Parameters and Significance, pp. 317–325*) investigates the expression hwhy MC_ta llj which is found in Ezekiel and other prophets (Isa 48:9a, 11a; 52:5b; Amos 2:7; Jer 34:15b–16; Mal 1:11b–14) but not in P. Milgrom rejects the view that expression denotes direct harm to the deuty and appeals to Lev 22:32 to argue that it refers to God being discredited among the people. Milgrom suggests that the phrase, attested already in Amos for moral offenses, was adopted by H to accommodate a wider range of transgressions that only pertain to ritual, but to moral and metaphorical concepts as well, thus replacing P’s lom. Moshe Bar-Asher (“The Qal Passive Participle of Geminate Verbs in Biblical Hebrew,” pp. 251–262) delves into morpho-semantics and fills in an important lacuna with a focus on the term h;∂dˆn. The term appears to refer both to a woman’s menstrual state and sprinkling however the former de- Hebrew Studies 50 (2009) 396 Reviews rives the root ddn and the latter, hdn. He also distinguishes h;∂dˆn referring to menstruation from the simple abstract noun as distinct grammatical forms, as supported by different translations for each in the Targumim. Ultimately, the term related to menstruations is best analyzed as a passive participle related to the meaning of being at a distance. From there, Bar-Asher, with the help of rabbinic literature, reconstructs a full participial paradigm and continues into a broader discussion of the phenomenon with the geminate verb zzg and other examples. Emanuel Tov has argued for some time that certain of the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal a unique set of scribal practices and here (“The Spelling and Language of the Qumran Scrolls: New Findings,” pp. 333–351) classifies 170 texts as belonging to a common type in which one frequently finds both particular morphological (elongated 3ms, 3mf, 2mp, and 3mp pronouns, certain elongated possessive and verbal suffixes, and the presence of a full vowel in prefixed verbal forms, for example, yaqtulu where the...