The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament Volumes 1-4 1

1177 Pages·2000·6.06 MB·English

by  Johann Jakob

The Hebrew and Aramaic
Lexicon
of the Old Testament
BY
LUDWIG KOEHLER WALTER BAUMGARTNER
AND

SUBSEQUENTLY REVISED BY
WALTER BAUMGARTNER JOHANN JAKOB STAMM
AND

WITH ASSISTANCE FROM
BENEDIKT HARTMANN • ZE’EV BEN-HAYYIM
EDUARD YECHEZKEL KUTSCHER • PHILIPPE REYMOND

TRANSLATED AND EDITED

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF
M.E.J. RICHARDSON
BRILL

The Hebrew & Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, CD-ROM Edition
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CONTENTS
Preface
Bibliography
Transliteration Table
Introductions
Letters
PREFACE TO VOLUME 1
It was both a privilege and a challenge to be asked to supervise the final preparation of
this English translation of what all Biblical scholars recognize as one of the outstanding
scholarly achievements of the post-war years. I have accordingly been obliged to read
again the whole of the original work in detail several times, and it has been salutary to
discover that so much of the text I thought I knew revealed itself in a fresh light, when
subjected to the pressure of issuing a translation into English. For many years in many
parts of the English speaking world the voices of those who demand a working
knowledge of other modern European languages (not to speak of the Classical languages)
as a prerequisite for the study of Biblical Hebrew seem to have been crying in the
wilderness. The publisher’s decision to present this monument of Biblical scholarship in
an English version is an important attempt to answer the call of growing numbers of
Bible students whose knowledge of German is not sufficient to appreciate HAL in its
original form.
Everyone who has been involved in the project realised that in an ideal world we
would have taken the opportunity to bring the text completely up-to-date, but we also
realised that that option could well delay the appearance of even one volume until the
next millennium. So, having established that there existed a need for an English
translation as soon as the German edition was complete, and knowing that today’s
electronic printing methods make for easier publication, it seemed better to make
accessible immediately a proven support for those who choose to learn Hebrew through
English rather than to make them wait indefinitely for a more modern version. What is
here offered is not a new lexicon, but a new presentation of one that has been evolving
through more than a generation of constant use.
It was in 1953 that the first edition was published with its distinctive bilingual
translations of the quoted Biblical passages. It had taken six years to print the text
Koehler had prepared and the stock was exhausted almost immediately. He died in 1956,
but six months before his death he had invited Baumgartner to complete a Supplement,
which was issued in 1957, together with a reprint of the first edition. These two volumes
comprise the second (bilingual) edition. Baumgartner was already aware of the difficulty
of using the Supplement at the same time as the main volume, and he stated in his
Introduction that he had it in mind to prepare a consolidated third edition. The first
fascicle of that third edition appeared in 1967; but he had decided to abandon the
bilingual format favoured by Koehler.
The five fascicles of the third edition will have taken over twenty-five years to
emerge; the seemingly endless hours of painstaking work that have been applied to them
manifest themselves in the obituaries of so many long-lived Professors of Hebrew for
whom English was not a mother tongue. The last of those fascicles, comprising the
Aramaic lexicon, is expected to be published soon, carefully prepared by J.J. Stamm and
Benedikt Hartmann, who have enjoyed the enduring support of Philippe Reymond. It will
be published simultaneously with a complete list of additions and corrections for the
whole of the third German edition and with a revised list of abbreviations. I have used the
list of additions, in conjunction with the ones published in the other three fascicles, as a
basis for the modifcation of the original text for this English edition.
The revised list of abbreviations has been used as the basis for the one presented here.
Because the sigla and the patterns of abbreviation changed from time to time during the
production of HAL, one of my aims in the English edition has been to introduce a greater
measure of consistency and clarity within the text itself. But it was impossible in the time
allowed to complete this task as thoroughly as I would have liked. Abbreviations for
Hebrew words and for the sigla have hardly been changed (the most noticeable will be an
arrow instead of the famous digamma for cross references). Only the most common
grammatical terms are abbreviated; the rest are spelled out in full; I adopted a similar
approach to the names of languages and dialects. The only proper name to be abbreviated
as a matter of course is the tetragrammaton. Abbreviations for the books of the Bible
have been anglicised where necessary, and sometimes expanded to avoid confusion.
Bibliographical references have been extensively changed so that the surname of the
author (or at least the first part of a hyphenated name and the first author of a joint work)
has been printed in full. The only books now referred to without an author’s name are
those to which very frequent reference is made, and they are all systematically cross
referenced in the new lists. Even if some inconsistencies persist, I hope the changes I
have introduced mean that the obscurer abbreviations have become clearer and that the
confusing ones have disappeared.
The publisher had expected that this volume would appear simultaneously with the
fifth fascicle of the German edition, but in the end this proved impossible. Nevertheless
the editors of that fascicle kindly agreed that an English translation of their foreword
should be published here first. It was therefore particularly sad to learn early this autumn
of the death of Professor Stamm, which occurred before he could see the final proof of
that translation.
This first English edition will comprise five fascicles which are scheduled to be
published over a period of three years. The changes introduced in the last four German
fascicles will straddle the English ones and the reader must be aware of consequential
variation within each English fascicle. This will be especially noticeable in the range of
bibliographical references but other changes of style and approach, reflecting the
changing membership of the original editorial team, become apparent when the text is
studied in detail. It is clearly important to bear in mind the editorship, the contents and
the date of publication of each German fascicle when new types of annotation are
noticed.
Fascicle 1, 1967, foreword by W. Baumgartner
from א to III חַבטֶ —
Fascicle 2, 1974, foreword by B. Hartmann
from II חַבטֶ — to טבנ—
Fascicle 3, 1983, foreword by The Editors
from טבנ— to האר—
Fascicle 4, 1990, foreword by B. Hartmann
from האר— to עשַ ֵת
Fascicle 5, forthcoming, foreword by B. Hartmann
Biblical Aramaic
Some of the differences in editorial approach were noted in the
various prefaces and introductory remarks in the earlier editions. They
are published here to show the English reader the gradual
development of the work.
Ludwig Koehler prepared the preface to the Hebrew part of the
bilingual first edition (1953), and W. Baumgartner the one for the
Aramaic part; but the translations into English were not always
idiomatic. Furthermore, they refer in their own style to material which
has been excluded or modified in the later editions. It would have been
inappropriate to prepare new translations, for that would have clouded
the story of the development of the Lexicon, so changes have been
made only to those phrases which most disturb the English ear or to
those which may mislead. Baumgartner’s own translation of the
Introduction to the Supplement of the second edition has been
reproduced to include the references to secondary literature (which he
deliberately omitted from his own English text, revised with the
assistance of David Winton Thomas, then Regius Professor of Hebrew
at the University of Cambridge).
But the introductions to the third edition have never been translated
and they contain important information on the new approach adopted
by the new editors after the death of Koehler. The one prepared by
Baumgartner in the first fascicle (1967) defines this new approach
clearly, and the one prepared by Hartmann for the final fascicle (1994)
describes in detail how these aims were subsequently advanced under
the later editors.
The preparation of this work could not have been completed in the
time available unless I had been able to take advantage of the
opportunity to study so often in the Library of the Nederlands Instituut
voor het Nabije Oosten in Leiden, for which I express my gratitude to
the Director, F. de Roos. There I was able not only to read, but also to
discuss with colleagues the problems I encountered from day to day. I
am especially mindful of the fellowship shown by Professors van
Donzel, Veenhof, Hoftijzer and Muraoka, who, whether because of their
relative distance from the project or their greater experience in
handling such intricate procedures, so often enabled me to identify the
area of a wood when all I could see was a mass of apparently
impenetrable trees.
Furthermore I was able to benefit from the substantial contributions
of the earlier translators of this volume, G.J. Jongeling-Vos and L.J. de
Regt, who had been working under the supervision of K. Jongeling of
the Faculty of Arts, Leiden University. More recently Johannes Tromp,
from the Faculty of Theology, has applied himself to the unenviable
task of collating the “on screen” text of the English edition with the
published text of the German edition, and it has been a source of
pleasure that we have been able sometimes to talk about materia
hebraica amidst all the jargon of computer software. The final lay-out was the
responsibility of Tijn Cuypers, whose love for and expertise in Classical Philology
permeated his professional experience as a typesetter. The debt I owe them for their hours
of labour, when there was little (at times indeed very little) light at the end of the tunnel,
is immeasurable.
But equally it would not have been possible to complete the task without the
forbearance of the publisher, who unfailingly offered me encouragement in word and
deed when I agreed to assume the final responsibility. That the last days of preparation
should have been marked by the sudden death of F.H. Pruyt, the Managing Director of
E.J. Brill has brought deep sadness to us all. He saw the project begin and it was he who
supported it with his distinctive vision of life; he encouraged all of us who knew him to
use the time in our hands more efficiently.
All the editorial aspects of the project have been resolutely shepherded by Hans van
der Meij. Whenever the valleys seemed dark he has resolved matters with an outstanding
sense of propriety. Such matters by nature are often inextricably linked with production
schedules and techniques, and to have had the assurance that these were always
cheerfully and carefully being handled by Pim Rietbroek has enabled me to enjoy some
moments of light-hearted reflection on the tortuous pathways to achieving “camera-ready
copy”.
Seldom does a book owe so much to so many who have not lived to see it completed.
Those of us who are allowed to remain and see it complete would certainly have liked to
see it further improved, for the sake of our predecessors as well as of the work itself. But
ideals are seldom attainable.
It is therefore appropriate to recall not only the words penned by the first editor in the
paragraph with which he closed his first introduction just over forty years ago (see below,
p. lxii), but also others penned long ago in Qoheleth.
רוצקְ י אלֹ םיִבעָ ֶב הֶארֹ ְו עָרְזי אלֹ חַ ור רמֵ שֹ
Manchester, Advent 1993M.E.J. Richardson
PREFACE TO VOLUME 2
This second volume of Koehler-Baumgartner in English covers another eight letters of
the alphabet. It includes the last few entries from the first German fascicule of 1967, the
whole of the second fascicule of 1974, and half of the third fascicule of 1983 (pp. 351–
857). Those seventeen years saw significant changes in the team of participating editors
and it was clearly difficult for them to maintain a consistency of style in every entry they
wrote. Attempting to impose one on the English edition has also not been easy.
Nevertheless I have done what I could to make the work as a whole more readable.
The first part of this volume (beginning of the letter ט to part way through ל)
is based on an electronically scanned version of the original German
text prepared by Dr. K. Jongeling, such as was used also for Vol. 1. He
and his assistants had also prepared a draft translation of those pages,
מ
and this was put at my disposal, together with a draft translation of
which had been made independently by Dr. Donald Schley. No scanned
material after p. 500 was available, so the rest has been set manually.
Both electronic scanning and manual settings have advantages and
disadvantages, but having now worked for some time with both I have
decided to continue my work using the latter method.
The final volume of the German edition (the Aramaic volume) has
also been set manually. When I wrote my preface to Vol. I in December
1993 everyone thought that it would only be a little while before that
Aramaic volume would appear. Sadly Professor Stamm died very soon
afterwards and it is only now that we can be confident of its imminent
appearance. Dr. Johannes Tromp, who helped me so much with Volume
1, has been helping to bring that work to completion. In his stead for
the onerous task of proofreading I have enjoyed the assistance
principally of Dr. Joost Holleman of the Faculty of Divinity, and also of a
number of other students of Hebrew in Leiden; at an earlier stage
considerable assistance was also given by Mr. Erik Larson.
The changes introduced into the original text are similar in spirit to
the ones made in pp. 1–350, which seem in retrospect to have been
comparatively homogeneous. The general aim has been to include all
that was in the original, and then to make any necessary
supplementation or modification to enable readers more quickly to
trace the passage they are seeking and to locate the copious cross-
references with which the work abounds. There is now more extensive
paragraphing for the longer entries and the principle of keeping initials
only for periodical publications and very well-known works has been
extended. In fact there now be much less need to consult the long list
of abbreviations in Vol. I. For the occasional references to secondary
literature which has not been previously listed in the general
bibliography I have prepared a supplement and this will be expanded
to include all other occasional references in the work and it is intended
to publish a fully revised bibliography in the last volume of this series.
One of the problems now addressed more consistently is the
translation of biblical quotations. There are many occasions when the
German means the same as what is used in one of the commonly used
English translations; but selecting and noting a translation closest to
the German would have been too subjective. I have therefore referred
primarily to the Revised English Bible (1992) or the New Revised
Standard Version (1989) for comparison, and have sometimes added a
note if one of them is significantly different. Though glossing a word in
a dictionary will often produce a different result from translating it in
its biblical context, to have ignored these recent important scholarly
translations (which will certainly have referred to discussions in
Koehler-Baumgartner) would have made this addition less useful for
the audience for which it is designed. Similarly, where conjectural
emendations are discussed which have also been noted in BHS I have
slipped in an appropriate reference even though it was not mentioned
in the original, especially if further support for the emendations is
provided there.
Philological remarks have sometimes been modified, especially
some references to Akkadian. I have assumed readers of this book will
more readily consult CAD than AHw.; but when the editors of CAD
worked on an entry which had already been covered in AHw., they
often came to a different conclusion. Even though some of these
conclusions will have been published after HAL, such references have
been checked wherever it seemed necessary to do so. My translation
of an Akkadian word will usually follow CAD when it agrees with AHw.,
and where it disagrees I have said so. I felt obliged also to change
references to suggested Arabic cognates taken from Wehr’s dictionary,
and have preferred to substitute references to Cowan’s translation of
that dictionary, with a corresponding change of page numbers. Just as
the original editors preferred to use Gibsom’s re-edition of Driver’s
Canaanite Myths for Ugaritic etymologies in the later stages of their
dictionary, so also I have not been adverse to adding a reference to
Hoftijzer and Jongeling’s Dictionary, which has effectively replaced
DISO. This seemed particularly important when alternative readings,
different interpretations or new lemmata were concerned.
The long list of corrections and additions previously published in the
original volumes has been incorporated into the body of this text, as
well as the additional corrections which are to be published in the two-
volume German edition recently announced by the publishers. Some
other typographical errors have been corrected without comment.
Making changes like this automatically increases the risk of introducing
new errors; I have corrected what I have noticed, but for any that have
been missed and for any that have been introduced I apologise.
Work like this cannot be completed without the unfailing support of
one’s friends. Throughout the period of preparation of this volume it is
my immediate family who deserve most heartfelt thanks. My children
Philip, Stephen, Gail and Ruth have been willing not only to cope with
the pressures that such an exhausting project puts on family life, but
to give active support by undertaking some of the mundane tasks of
scholarship: cutting and pasting texts for translation, typing up long
parts of the manuscript in both roman and semitic fonts, checking
pagination and headers in the proofs. It was done even though none of
them knew Hebrew. And Helen, my wife, has helped me on numerous
occasions with translation difficulties as well as inspiring me more than
anyone else to continue to strive to reach the end.
Furthermore such a project should not be simply slotted into the
end of a university lecturer’s normal working day, with its daily round
of teaching, administration and meetings. It demands long hours of
uninterrupted silence in a well-stocked and well-arranged library. For
the last two months these conditions have been granted me through a
Research Leave Fellowship from the British Academy. I am grateful to
the administrators of this fund and to my supporters (Professor J.C.L.
Gibson of Edinburgh and Professor R. Gordon of Cambridge) as well as
my colleagues in Manchester for allowing me leave. It has meant that
Volume II is now complete before the end of this year and work on the
next volume is already well advanced.
The publishers have continued to provided the necessary technical
support and planning and again special thanks are due to Hans van der
Meij and Pim Rietbroek, who have both been unstinting in their
encouragement. It seems appropriate to recall the words of Lewis and
Short:
Great advances have been made in the sciences on which lexicography
depends. Minute research in manuscript authorities has largely restored
the texts of the classical writer, and even their orthography. Philology has
traced the growth and history of thousands of words, and revealed
meanings and shades of meaning which were long unknown. Syntax has
been subjected to a profounder analysis. The history of ancient nations,
the private life of their citizens, the thoughts and beliefs of their writers
have been closely scrutinized in the light of accumulating information.
Thus the student of today may justly demand of his Dictionary far more
than the scholarship of thirty years ago could furnish. The present work is
the result of a series of earnest efforts by the Publishers to meet this
demand.
Though penned in New York as long ago as 1879 as part of the advertisement for their
great Latin Dictionary, their remarks seem particularly appropriate to a Hebrew
Dictionary for today.
To have had the opportunity again to work in the Nederlands Instituut voor het
Nabije Oosten and the University of Leiden has meant that all I have needed has been
provided with a lack of fuss and an abundance of civility. I would particularly thank the
Director, Dr. J. de Roos, and Professor Klaas Veenhof for allowing this to happen.
Leiden: November 1995 M.E.J. Richardson
PREFACE TO VOLUME 3
It is just twelve months since I completed reading the final proofs of the second volume
of this Lexicon, and not one of those months has passed slowly. Now that it is time to
hand to the printer the final corrected proofs of the third volume I recall how often last
winter and spring I retired from my desk at night burdened with the thought of so many
pages still to be written; but as the early summer mornings dawned I was deeply grateful
that more than half the work was already “in the press” and there was real hope that the
job could be ready on time. I should like to thank, therefore, all those people who have
supported me throughout the year by word and deed.
The personal commitment of Hans van der Meij and Pim Rietbroek (on behalf of the
publishers) to this volume has been no less than it was to the previous ones. But to have
completed so much so quickly is in no small measure due to the fact that the publishers
were also able to provide technical assistance in the person of Joost Holleman. He had
assisted me in the closing stages of Volume II, and he has been closely involved with
Volume III from beginning to end. At the same time he has been preparing the core
material for the final (supplementary) volume of the German edition, and that this should
have just now been published, in the same week that the editorial work on this volume
has been completed, is gratifying for us both.
For a major project such as that to which we have committed ourselves to be
successfully accomplished there is need to have a sustained period with an open timetable
devoted only to that one project. I should therefore like to record my thanks to the British
Academy for giving the necessary financial support to the University of Manchester to
enable me to take the whole year 1995–1996 away from my teaching and administrative
duties. Without this help the volume could not have been completed so quickly. The
bibliographical resources available in Leiden University have been exemplary and to
have had the companionship of the Semitists in NINO has again introduced much
pleasure into the unavoidable pain of preparing the intricate copy. To have been able to
live in the placid surroundings of the village of Woubrugge with my close family and
welcoming neighbours has done more than I could have imagined to make the days of
rest also days of recuperation.
Readers will notice that although the page style is unaltered from earlier volumes, and
the pagination of the first volume corresponded more or less to that of the original
German text, this volume is some ten per cent fuller than the original. The main reason
for this is the more extensive inclusion of quotations from modern English Bibles
(primarily the REB and the NRSV) to accompany the original references to the Swiss
(Zürcher Bibel) and French (Traduction oecuménique de la Bible) translations
used by the original authors. Moreover I have frequently drawn attention to the
similarities and discrepancies between REB and NEB, especially where references to
“recent” scholarly literature had clearly influenced the NEB. As in the last volume I have
further expanded the references to Akkadian, so that they now include citations from
CAD volumes P, Ṣ, Š and Q, which were not available to the original authors. Similarly
Hoftijzer and Jongeling’s Dictionary has been referred to much more extensively in this
volume, so that all references to Hebrew inscriptions have been brought up to date.
I was provided with draft translations independently commissioned by the publishers
for a substantial part of the material covered in this volume; a part of sade and all of
qoph by Wilfred Watson, and resh and sin by Donald Schley (who it will be
remembered had prepared some material for earlier volumes also). I would thank them
and the publishers for making this material available; I have drawn freely from it, but
adapted it extensively to fit into the general editorial style. Several free-lance proof
readers, who happened to be available in Leiden at the requisite moment, have helped
collate the English and German texts. They included Antonie Holleman, Gail Richardson,
Ophirah Toff, and Jaap Oppedijk, who was kind enough to go far beyond the call of duty
to draw my attention to inconsistencies and inadequacies in the material he examined.
These many hands have certainly made the work lighter, and consequently it would be
easier to shift the blame whenever mistakes are noticed. But that is not my intention; the
final responsibility is mine; that we have all been able to work happily together
throughout the year has made that responsibility enjoyable.
Just as Bauer and Leander (who are so often quoted in the Lexikon) regretted in the
preface to their Historische Grammatik that they had not been able to eradicate from their
book all Ungleichmässigkeiten, so with them I would hope that those that found in the
following pages will not be sehr störend. After a year of such intensive work one is
inclined to feel not unlike the ancient Sumerian sage Sinsamuh, when he wrote down
in the words of his prayer to Enki, ab-ba nu-men gistu -mu ba-dugud igi-du -
2 8
mu ba-gi -gi (see W.W. Hallo JAOS 88:82); but the strains of the much more
16 16
familiar poetry of Isaiah 40 can then be recalled as a fitting response, and this certainly
30f
encourages progress.
Woubrugge: 11th November 1996 M.E.J. Richardson
PREFACE TO VOLUME 4
Now that the English version of the whole of the Hebrew section of HAL is complete
thanks are due for the continued encouragement and support from the publishers. They
have shown exceptional diligence in the production of this volume and, as before, Hans
van der Meij has taken the major decisions. Unfortunately Pim Rietbroek, who took such
an active part in the technical aspects of production of previous volumes, has been
prevented because of ill-health from doing all that he would have liked to have done this