tators and the accumulated labors of Christian scholars from Buxtorf to Gesenius, the author has consulted a valuable manuscript lexicon of Menahhem ben S'ruk, hitherto unedited, which is preserved in the royal library at Berlin. We will now present the reader with the means of forming a judgment for himself by making a few extracts with accompanying remarks from the body of M. Biesenthal's work. The words duration of life, world, and mole, are de rived by Simonis and after him by Gesenius from two separate roots, /// Arab. to last, to endure, and Syr. S to dig; and thus we is, the latter of which, : thus to conceal, lose the analogy of the words and according to Gesenius, is from the root from which is the hidden, and hence the distant, long lasting, as time, the world. This discrepancy, however, is avoided by M. Biesenthal, who derives from the obsolete Hebrew root to hide away, conceal, preserved in Rabbinic, both the hidden, remote, hence time, the world (like is), and a mole, i. e. one hidden in the earth. The correctness of the latter view is advocated not only by the superior simplicity of deducing both words from a single indigenous root, but also by the analogy thus shown to exist in the formation of the two synonymous terms and ix. The same analogy is exhibited by the Arabic f and i age, eter. nity, from the equivalent roots and to endure. these might be united the Hebrew T to be lost, to perish, termed With by Golius and Freytag the converse of : for the idea of being hidden or lost may be regarded in two opposite points of view, either of becoming utterly lost, perishing, as the Heb. 2, or of losing itself in the extent of its duration, as the Arab. 51 509 -10 . In page 234, col. 1, of the Dictionary of Mr. Roy, we read as follows: "A weasel, or small, creeping animal. m. s. Lev. 11: 29," (in this word there are three mistakes: the first letter Hheth is a medial instead of an initial, the vowel accompanying the word should be Petocho (") not Sekopho ('), and this should be placed not on the first radical but on the second, thus). “In T yr. to creep, or steal upon a person softly, imperceptibly." (We ave no hesitation in affirming all that part of the statement which ollows the word "or" to be a gratuitous addition of the author's). Hence " (here are two mistakes: both and should be pointed with (-), thus as in Ps. 17: 14. 39:6; the first () is changed into () only in those cases where the word receives a pause-accent) "the world, or time, which passes away unnoticed, as a dream when one awaketh." So that "the world, time,” is derived from "a weasel or creeping animal," because the world creeps away! The Rabbinic derivation of this word is so much on a par with that of Mr. Roy, that we cannot resist the temptation of presenting it for the reader's further edification. There was, say they, a council called of the princes of the world, to consult on the best method of administration. The ruler of the sea complained that he had not subjects enough. He was accordingly allowed to seek some from the earth, on condition of providing them with food. Thereupon he cast all the land animals into the sea, with the command that they should there propagate their species. And hence the saying, that every creature of the land is to be found also in the sea, although some have been made to assume the forms of monsters. But when it came to the weasel's turn, she standing on the shore said to the prince of the sea, "Why must I throw myself into the sea again? do you not perceive," pointing to her reflection in the water, " that I am already there?" The prince, satisfied with this, dismissed the weasel. Hence say the Talmudists every land animal is to be found in the sea, except the weasel who escaped by her cunning. On this account the earth is called, as the weasel (n) alone remains peculiar to it! (Buxt. Lex. Chald. Talm. et Rab. col. 756). We entirely concur in the opinion of M. Biesenthal, that the meaning of the next root is to be weak, sick; and accordingly reject the far-fetched comparison of Gesenius with the Arabic Dictionary, as a fair specimen of the philosophical acumen and clearness of arrangement which reign throughout the work. inf. nibh fut. apoc. and b1 1. to be weak, faint, powerless. 2. to be sick n to be diseased in the feet. a sore evil. 3. to רָעָה חוֹלָה .I am sick of love חוֹלַת אַהֲבָה אָנִי be afflicted, disturbed, with about any thing. Niph. 1 pers. to become weak .1 נַחֲלָה, נַחְלָה .part. fem נֶחְלוּ .pers 3 נֶאֱלֵיתִי exhausted, powerless. a wound difficult to heal. 2. to be troubled, disturbed, with by about any thing. Am. 6: 6. Phel inf. nib imp. b pl. fut. (?) 1. to make sick. Ps. 77:11. 2. to impose sickness upon one, with a Deut. 29: 21. 3. to weaken =soften something; hence to soften one's countenance (anger), comp. Don Is. 53: 3. Ezek. 27: 35, and to soften Jehovah's face (anger), to the rich of the Pu'hal. pass. to be (Syr. form for) 1 pers 1. to aggravate, as a wound. 2. to contract a disorder= make one's self sick. Hos. 7:5: on the day of our king try ba 7n the princes make themselves sick from the heat of wine. Others: the princes empty the skins of wine. v. n (?) Vulg. coeperunt furere a vino, according to the vowels na... br. 3. to be afflicted. Hoph. " to be wounded. Hithp. inf. ning, imp. fut. apoc. in pause 1. to become sick. 2. simulative to feign one's self sick. p. 138, 9, 10. 139, 16. $370, 1) 373, 1. 2. 392 8." 2 seek his grace. Ps. 45: 13; by people shall soften thy countenance. weakened. Is. 14: 10. Hiph. 66 Turn we now to Mr. Roy's exposition of the same verb. " 1. He was faint, weak, exhausted, etc.; 2. in pain, or great distress; 3. was grieved, afflicted, persecuted" (the reader will observe that the meanings of the different species are jumbled together without distinction and almost without order); "4. he supplicated, asked for mercy" (we must charitably suppose that the connection between this and the previous meanings is so perfectly self-evident to the author that he considers any explanation unnecessary). Under the head "3. m. s. pret. K." we have " 1 Sam. 22: 8," where the word occurs only in the participial form. In 2 Chron. 16: 1, which is referred to as containing the future, the word does not appear in any as 66 hape. In Jer. 12: 13, referred to for the Pi'hel, we find only the Niph'hal Next we have "Piail" (why repeated?), “Deut. 9: 22" (this should be 29: 21), and further down, "Hiph. 1 K. 22: 4" (the word is here in Hoph'hal). Proceeding to the next line, * we find “As a n. m. s." (in this word are two typographical errors: should be pointed with (), and 3 with (-), thus in Deut. 28: 61). Among the affixes to this verbal noun we are presented with "-her" (" misfortunes never come singly," and accordingly here also are two mistakes: the vowel preceding is (4) not (-), and should contain a Mappik, thus ); and this is fol*lowed by the enigmatical expression "f. s. const.," whose meaning st is probably best known to the author. We have next "nin My infirmity, weakness, f. s. Ps. 77: 11, for "nib, 3 Rad. drop. because of aff. compens. by dag." (in this passage are four mis... statements: first, nib is not a derivative noun, but is the regular inf. constr. Pi'hel of the verb; secondly, the author immediately contradicts himself by asserting that in is for n with the third radical dropped on account of the affix", whence it appears that he now regards it as the pret. Pi'hel with the afformative of the first pers. sing. which however would be "not b but in reality the word, as we have already observed, is the infin. constr. with the suffix of the first person; consequently n is not a suffix, but the hardened form of the third radical! thirdly, the afformative of the first pers. sing. pret. of verbs is "n not; fourthly, as to the compensation of the third radical by Daghesh in the second-for this is the only letter in the word bearing this point-we would merely suggest that this is the characteristic of the Pi'hel species). "Hence, He declared it to be my infirmity," etc. (the word here rendered "he declared" is 1 Ps. 77: 11, the first pers. sing. fut. with conv.) Let the reader compare this heterogeneous mass of absurdities with the masterly exposition of M. Biesenthal, and draw his own conclusions. Another of the many instances in which we think the author of the School Dictionary to have happily reunited the parts of a root which Gesenius had separated is to be found in the two words court and grass; the former of these is derived by Gesenius from the Arabic to enclose, surround, and the latter from خصر to be green, to flourish (viruit). Both words are referred by M. Biesenthal to a single obsolete Hebrew root bearing the same meaning with its cognates P = VR, viz. to divide, cut off, hence grass, that which is cut dow and front court, that which is cut off, separated. We could wish that he had proceeded a little further, and had noticed the connection between grass and court-a place separated from the public ground by an enclosure and hence producing grass; which would have united the /// خضر two Arabic roots to hedge about and to be green. We will here give the article on, as a favorable specimen of the author's mode of treating the nouns. 66 .with sufti חֲצֵרִים .pl ; חֲצֵרוֹ .with suff ,חֲצַר .com., constr חָצֵר * .1 חֲצֵרוֹתַי .with suff ,חַצְרוֹת .constr, חֲצֵרוֹת .and fem חֲצֵרִי court-yard. the inner (priests') court of the temple. 2. hamlet, village; used also of the moveable tent-villages of the nomads. Is. 42: 11. It is used in composition to form many names of places, viz. (a) - a place on the border of the tribe of Judah. Num. 34: 4. (b) 10' and ' (Horse-court) in the tribe of Simeon. Josh. 19:5. 1 Chron. 4: 31. (c) and 73 (Fountain-court) on the borders of northern Palestine. Num. 34: 9. (d) (Fox-court) in the tribe of Simeon. Neh. 11: 27. (e) i (Middle-court) on the border of Hauran. Ezek. 47: 16. (f) plur. ning a camping-place of the Israelites. Num. 11: 35." On turning to the "Complete Dictionary," we find "grass, leeks, young grain" (!). One of the three references given is "Is 15: 16;" this chapter has but nine verses, and the word appears in the sixth. The word the reader will seek for in vain, but in lieu thereof he is presented with "" (that this cannot be laid to the printer's charge, is shown by the annexed pronunciation “chatzar;" of this another specimen occurs a little further down, where we have "ni cha-tzar-mo-weth" for n ma-weth). "A court, or open place, set apart for public business." "Ps. 104: 4." (here the word does not occur). 66 The attention paid by M. Biesenthal to the development of the significations of verbs as affected by the various particles with which they are construed will be seen in the following article on 7. |