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Congealing and Curdling: A Word Study of the RootNick Elder

Hebrew Bible ExegesisThe Iliff School of Theology

The root occurs only four times in the Hebrew bible, one of which is in the

form of a textual variant. Of interest is that each occurrence of has a very distinctiveuse. It occurs twice in a verbal form taking two disparate objects, and once in a participialform. 1 This word study will review the uses of the root , concluding that the root hada fairly broad semantic range, which is no longer attested because of the limited text of Hebrew witnesses available.

The first occurrence of the root is found in the song of Moses in Exodus 15.8.Here the root occurs in the Qal perfect 3cs , with the object (depths). The

context is Moses praising YHWH for parting the sea and allowing Israel to flee to their safety. He praises, the depths were congealed 2 in the heart of the sea. 3 There are two

parallel verbs in this verse, each concerning water: and which both have

very clear rising/standing types of connotations. Here then the meaning of the root will naturally have a parallel nuance of the rising/standing connotation found in the tworelated verbs of the verse. Thus, the verse could be translated, the depths came risingtogether, in the heart of the sea. In this translation the nuance of congealed, or comingtogether, is maintained with the two other parallel verbal forms that have a risingconnotation.

The second use of in the Hebrew Bible comes in Zephaniah 1.12, this time

in participial form, . The use here greatly differs from the use in Exodus 15. This portion of Zephaniah is an indictment of YHWH against(the men congealing upon the wine dregs). Here the text gives the sense that these menhave become worthless or lazy, many English translations use the adjectivecomplacent. 4 The sense is that they have become sluggish; they are less viscous than

before, changing from free, quick moving liquid and turning into slow, sludgy muck.This will be similar to the sense found in the last use of in the Hebrew Bible.

The final, and perhaps most interesting, instance of occurs in Job 10.10,again in the verbal form as a Hitpael imperfect 2ms with a 1cs pronominial suffix-

. The object of the verb is clearly contained in the 1cs pronominal suffix with the

1 The fourth form is also verbal, the qal imperfect 3ms but this is clearly a variantof what should another word related to the root of this study, , meaning frost.2 All the major lexicons have congeal as a possible English equivalent for :HALOT, BDB, and Holladay. 3 All translations are mine based on BHS.4 NIV, ESV

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Bibliography

Baumgartner, Walter and Koehler, Ludwig. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of theOld Testament . 4 vols. New York: E.J. Brill, 1996.

Holladay, William L. A Conncise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament .Grand Rapids: E.J. Brill, 1988.

Brown, Francis, S.R. Driver, Charles Briggs. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-GeseniusHebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody: 1979.