We spoke last time of Phonetic Cognates, “sound alikes.” On p.294 of the EDBH, Clark says, “But Hirsch makes this principle central to his approach to the Hebrew language in general and his translation and commentary to Bible in particular.“
A bit more about Phonetic Cognates: in today’s linguistic parlance, you may hear them called “phonemes.” Same idea, they are “sound-alikes.”
Merriam-Webster defines:
We spoke earlier on the website of the importance of hearing, and the prayer said twice daily in the Jewish faith, the Shema, ”Hear, O Israel•••” The word is EDBH p.265 שמע listen; pay attention CM satisfy need. It focuses on the idea that if we pay attention to God’s voice, our needs are satisfied (not all our ‘wants,’ but our needs). Part of the reason it is so important to שמע, to hear and pay attention, are these subtleties of meaning in the language of Scripture. We will be getting to many examples, which will likely open your eyes to how much more is in God’s word than we have been exposed to.
The Variants are important and also help focus our attention on some of the subtleties of meaning. Not all families have a root with a doubled consonant, though many do. In addition to Clark’s comment that he has added some Variants that he did not find in Hirsch’s writings, this writer will, from time to time point out a connection that fits the typical patterns but is not included in the EDBH. I showed you some examples of root listings in Blog #5, that Demonstrated how they work.
In writings to come, we will be exploring the use of the Cognates and the Variants to help bring much greater depth to your understanding of God’s word. I pray only that I can do justice to God’s word, and to the very hard and detailed work done by both Hirsch and by Clark. As I pointed out earlier, if you feel led at some point to use this book, please spend a lot of time in the Introduction and the Appendices before attempting to dive into the actual word listings. And, there are no shortcuts••• it has taken years for me to grasp a fraction of what all is here. But, I am a slow learner, requiring lots of repetition. A very basic knowledge of the Hebrew AlefBet (alphabet) is needed to use the book, as its entries are by Hebrew, not English, order.
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