{"id":80968,"date":"2020-10-05T17:06:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=80968"},"modified":"2020-10-05T17:06:02","modified_gmt":"2020-10-05T14:06:02","slug":"its-like-similar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/its-like-similar\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Like, Similar"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"80968","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"584","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The Hebrew imaginary\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

In Psalm 17, David declares his faithfulness to God, even though enemies pursue him. He describes his foes as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGuard me like the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings from the wicked who despoil me, my mortal enemies who encircle me. Their hearts are closed to pity; they mouth arrogance; now they hem in our feet on every side; they set their eyes roaming over the land.\u201d (Psalms 17:8-11)<\/span><\/p>\n

In these verses, his pursuers are mentioned in the plural. However, in the following verse, a particular enemy is mentioned:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe is like a lion eager for prey, a king of beasts lying in wait.\u201d (17:12)<\/span><\/p>\n

The commentaries differ on who is compared to the lion here. Ibn Ezra says each one of the marauders is like a lion. Radak, however, says that David is portraying in this psalm his feelings when he was fleeing from Saul, and that King Saul was the lion-like figure. Radak points out that in an earlier psalm we see this imagery:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026concerning Cush, a Benjaminite [a reference to Saul] \u2026 deliver me from all my pursuers and save me, lest, like a lion, they tear me apart.\u201d (Psalms 7:1-3)<\/span><\/p>\n

In our verse, the Hebrew word for \u201clike, similar,\u201d <\/span>dimyon<\/span><\/em>, is a hapax legomenon \u2013 that is it appears only once in the entire bible. In some cases, that makes interpreting the meaning rather difficult (just wait until we get to the book of Job). But here \u201clike\u201d is certainly the meaning. It derives from the root <\/span>damah<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto be like, resemble.\u201d From \u201clikened,\u201d it progressed to “compared” to “considered” to “imagined”. And this gives us another meaning of <\/span>dimyon<\/span><\/em>\u00a0in modern Hebrew \u2013 \u201cimagination.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This same root gave us a number of other familiar words in Hebrew:<\/span><\/p>\n