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The Prophet and His Day: Isaiah 1-39 - Free Bible Commentary

The Prophet and His Day: Isaiah 1-39 - Free Bible Commentary

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BRIEF DEFINITIONS OF HEBREW VERBAL FORMSWHICH IMPACT EXEGESISI. Brief <strong>His</strong>torical Development of HebrewHebrew is part of the Shemitic (Semitic) family of southwest Asian language. <strong>The</strong> name(given by modern scholars) comes from Noah’s son, Shem (cf. Gen. 5:32; 6:10). Shem’sdescendants are listed in Gen. 10:21-31 as Arabs, Hebrews, Syrians, Arameans, <strong>and</strong> Assyrians. Inreality some Semitic languages are used by nations listed in Ham’s line (cf. Gen. 10:6-14), Canaan,Phoenicia, <strong>and</strong> Ethiopia.Hebrew is part of the northwest group of these Semitic languages. Modern scholars havesamples of this ancient language group from:A. Amorite (Mari Tablets from 18 th century B.C. in Akkadian)B. Canaanite (Ras Shamra Tablets from 15 th century in Ugaritic)C. Canaanite (Amarna Letters from 14 th century in Canaanite Akkadian)D. Phoenician (Hebrew uses Phoenician alphabet)E. Moabite (Mesha stone, 840 B.C.)F. Aramaic (official language of the Persian Empire used in Gen. 31:47 [2 words]; Jer. 10:11;Dan. 2:4-6; 7:28; Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26 <strong>and</strong> spoken by Jews in the first century in Palestine)<strong>The</strong> Hebrew language is called “the lip of Canaan” in Isa. 19:18. It was first called“Hebrew” in the prologue of Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Ben Sirach) about 180 B.C. (<strong>and</strong> someother early places, cf. Anchor <strong>Bible</strong> Dictionary, vol. 4, pp. 205ff). It is most closely related toMoabite <strong>and</strong> the language used at Ugarit. Examples of ancient Hebrew found outside the<strong>Bible</strong> are:1. the Gezer calendar, 925 B.C. (a school boy’s writing)2. the Siloam Inscription, 705 B.C. (tunnel writings)3. Samaritan Ostraca, 770 B.C. (tax records on broken pottery)4. Lachish letters, 587 B.C. (war communications)5. Maccabean coins <strong>and</strong> seals6. some Dead Sea Scroll texts7. numerous inscriptions (cf. “Languages [Hebrew],” ABD 4:203ff)It, like all Semitic languages, is characterized by words made up of three consonants (triconsonantalroot). It is an inflexed language. <strong>The</strong> three-root consonants carry the basic wordmeaning, while prefixed, suffixed, or internal additions show the syntactical function (latervowels, cf. Sue Green, Linguistic Analysis of Biblical Hebrew, pp. 46-49).Hebrew vocabulary demonstrates a difference between prose <strong>and</strong> poetry. Wordmeanings are connected to folk etymologies (not linguistic origins). Word plays <strong>and</strong> soundplays are very common (paronomasia).iii

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