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Title: Eine neue Konjektur zu Hos 12,5
Author(s): GZELLA, Holger
Journal: Biblica
Volume: 102    Issue: 3   Date: 2021   
Pages: 447-451
DOI: 10.2143/BIB.102.3.3289785

Abstract :
The reading בכה '(while) he wept' in Hos 12,5 according to the Masoretic Text is suspicious on grounds of contents, semantics, and syntax: this reaction is unattested in the underlying story of Jacob’s struggle with his opponent at the Jabbok in Gen 32,26-27; weeping in general occurs predominantly in ritual, or at least ritualized, and in legal contexts in the Hebrew Bible; and there are no convincing parallels for an asyndetic perfect that denotes another action concomitant with but different from the one depicted by the main verb. The easiest solution of all these problems would be to correct MT’s reading of the verb בכה to the adverbial expression בכח 'forcefully', which is paleographically easy, idiomatically impeccable, and contextually satisfactory.

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