B'Shaggam: An Obscure Phrase in Gen. 6:3

Abstract

The attention of commentators has always been attracted to a fragment of Hebrew mythology embodied in that strange short passage in Genesis, chapter 6, verses 1-4.1 Hence, my interest has recently been aroused by Dr. Guillaume's paper dealing with this subject in the October issue of the American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. I fully agree with the author as to the term "',l (vs. 3) that its source is Arabic. Hence the rendering, "My spirit shall not abide [or shall not be lowered] in man forever," is correct. But there is no need to attribute a foreign origin to the word tZZj'n (vs. 3). Upon careful study of this word it becomes evident in the first place (as is, indeed, admitted by Dr. Guillaume) that the gimel should be vocalized by a pathah and not by a qames. This makes it a pure Hebrew phrase that needs no emendation. We find the term ?Vj in several places in Eccles. 1:17, 2:15, and 8:14, the prefix 1 as well