סרת טעם או חסרת דעת?

מאת: אבנר רמו

אל: avnerramu @ aol.com

In the Book of Proverbs we read: אשת כסילות, המיה; פתיות, ובל-ידעה מה
“The woman folly is riotous; she is thoughtless, and knows nothing” (Pro 9:13).

Yet we also find in this book: נזם זהב, באף חזיר-- אשה יפה, וסרת טעם - “As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman that turns aside from discretion” (Pro 11:22).

It is not clear how the English translator determined that the unique phrase סרת טעם (sarath taa’m) means “turns aside from discretion.” The Greek translator wrote here: “imprudent” and it seems that he believed that here טעם (taa’m) is a misspelled דעת (daa’th) - “knowledge” (e.g. Pro 1:4, 7, 22, 29; 2:6; 8:9; 10:14; 12:1, 23; 14:7, 18; 15:2, 7, 14; 17:27; 18:15; 19:2, 25, 27; 20:15; b21:11; 22:12; 23:12; 24:5; 29:7).

Furthermore, we also find in the Book of Proverbs the expression: נגיד--חסר תבונות - “The prince that lacks understanding” (Pro 28:16), which suggests that סרת (sarath) is a letter-deletion error of חסרת (khasrath) - “lacking.” Therefore the expression:
סרת טעם (sarath taa’m) appears to be a misspelled חסרת דעת (khasrath daa’th) - “lacking knowledge.”