{"id":84937,"date":"2020-12-16T12:11:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T10:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=84937"},"modified":"2020-12-16T12:11:49","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T10:11:49","slug":"fine-goldish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/fine-goldish\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Goldish\u00a0"},"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":"84937","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"635","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"On the wings of a dove\r\n\r\n","content":"

Psalm 68 describes a military victory. It opens with these words of encouragement:\u00a0<\/span>\u201cGod will arise, His enemies shall be scattered, His foes shall flee before Him.\u201d (Psalm 68:2)<\/span><\/p>\n

Later it describes the defeat of God\u2019s enemies:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe kings and their armies are in headlong flight; housewives are sharing in the spoils; even for those of you who lie among the sheepfolds there are wings of a dove sheathed in silver, its pinions in fine gold.\u201d (68:13-14).<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a difficult image to understand (not helped by the obscure words used in the English translation). According to the Da’at Mikra commentary, the verses can be explained this way:<\/span><\/p>\n

After the defeated kings flee, the soldiers of Israel will divide up the spoils found in the royal homes. Those soldiers, after returning home, will be able to rest as if they were lying in the shelters of the sheep. And they will return home like doves, who return to nest, laden with the silver and gold (like the shining wings of a dove) that they captured in the war.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to focus on one phrase in the verses above \u2013 \u201cfine gold.\u201d The Hebrew is <\/span>yerakrak charutz<\/span><\/em>. The second word in the phrase,\u00a0<\/span>charutz<\/span><\/em>\u00a0clearly means \u201cgold.\u201d But for those familiar with the Hebrew words for colors, <\/span>yerakrak<\/span><\/em>\u00a0seems to be similar to <\/span>yarok<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013<\/span><\/i> \u201cgreen.\u201d So why is it also identified as \u201cgold\u201d here?<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason to doubt that both words mean gold here. In other Semitic languages, like Ugaritic and South Arabian, there is a cognate word that means gold. But based on other uses of the words <\/span>yarok<\/span><\/em>\u00a0and <\/span>yerakrak<\/span><\/em>\u00a0in Hebrew, it seems that the color of this gold might be on the spectrum of green to yellow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The verse says the gold is <\/span>yerakrak<\/span><\/em>, not <\/span>yarok<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i> What\u2019s the difference between them?<\/span><\/p>\n

The only other time <\/span>yerakrak<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>appears in the Bible is in Leviticus 13:49 and 14:37, when discussing the laws of <\/span>tzaraat<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013<\/span><\/i> the skin disease. Since the color of the skin is important for identifying the type of affliction, the exact meaning of <\/span>yerakrak<\/span><\/em>, and the other colors mentioned there is important.<\/span><\/p>\n

A serious debate arose in the Talmud, and then in the later rabbinic authorities, as to the significance of the reduplication of the last two letters. Some say that it meant an intensified color, and others say it meant a paler version of the color. While some modern scholars say the first opinion is likely correct, in modern Hebrew the latter opinion took hold. So since <\/span>adom<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is \u201cred,\u201d we say that <\/span>adamdam<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>is \u201creddish\u201d (not fully red).<\/span><\/p>\n

However, our verse in Psalms is clearly a parable, so no such precision is necessary regarding the color of the metal. I\u2019m sure the soldiers were glad to take it home, regardless of the shade of gold.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Fine Goldish\u00a0","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"On the wings of a dove","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":84938,"id":84938,"title":"ps68-gold silver dove","filename":"ps68-gold-silver-dove.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/fine-goldish\/ps68-gold-silver-dove\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps68-gold-silver-dove","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":84937,"date":"2020-12-16 10:10:00","modified":"2022-08-21 10:22:23","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1280,"height":1054,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-300x247.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":247,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-768x632.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":632,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-1024x843.png","large-width":1024,"large-height":843,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove.png","1536x1536-width":1280,"1536x1536-height":1054,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove.png","2048x2048-width":1280,"2048x2048-height":1054,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-1200x988.png","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":988,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/ps68-gold-silver-dove-510x420.png","home_baner-width":510,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84939,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84937\/revisions\/84939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}