calling the Hebrew-literate

[cellio]

A friend asked me about the word "n'filim" (or sometimes "nefilim"), which is the noun for the giants talked about in Gen 6:4 and Num 13:33. Or is it? ORT asserts that the former is literally "fallen angels", but armed with a dictionary, 501 Hebrew Verbs, and the knowledge that "angel" is usually a completely different word, I'm not seeing it. Oh, and there's a slight difference in the Hebrew in the two places cited, a small matter of an extra yud, and I don't know if that's a root change or some grammatical transformation.

The discussion is here (and specifically here). We'd welcome further clues from you folks who know a lot more of this language than I do. :-)

Comments

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I sometimes forget that not everyone has taken courses in Biblical Hebrew... not that they did me much good! If you're writing divrei torah on a regular basis, you should get a Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon. It'll mention every occurrence of that root in the Bible and give you a good exploration of the roots. Your synagogue might even have one.

Anyway, BDB has the root k-f-f as "bend, bend down, be bent, bowed," with kefufim "those bowed down -- in distress, humiliation, etc., Ps 145:11, 146:8."

On the other hand, n-f-l's root is "fall, lie," with one branch of meanings in Qal being "fall prostrate, fall at full length, sink down, fall at one's feet, fall upon." "Lie prostrate" and "take to one's bed" are also idioms. In Hiphil you've got "cause to fall, cause death, casting, let drop." So I guess the root of difference between nefalim and kefufim is "fallen ones" versus "bended ones" -- not really the same meaning, except by analogy.