ובימי רעבון ישבעו

מאת: אבנר רמו

Except for one questionable entry (Deu 28:39) the word אגר - “gather” appear only in the Book of Proverbs (Pro 6:8; 10:5).

Now we read in this book:
פקח עיניך שבע-לחם.
רע רע, יאמר הקונה; ואזל לו, אז יתהלל.
“Open your eyes and you shall have bread in plenty.
It is bad, it is bad, said the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasts” (Pro 20:13-14).

The English translation of these verses turned them to meaningless words. These verses have been completely deleted from the Greek translation. However, if רע רע (ra’ ra’) is a letter-deletion of רעב רע (ra’v ra’) - “starvation is bad” then logic suggests that ואזל (veazal) is a letter-substitution error of ואגר (veagar) - “and he gathered.” This suggestion assumes that here in addition to a ר (r) - ל (l) exchange a ג (g) letter was substituted by a ז (z). If this suggestion is correct, then this would be the third entry of the word אגר - “gather” in the Book of Proverbs.