Understanding the Masora - example 1

 As I noted last month, I have come across a new downloadable book on the Masoretic texts. I read more slowly Martín-Contreras on the Masora. It is a clear introduction. Verifying the masora is tricky to say the least. The annotator of the codex does not have the advantage of a computer and database. I can see immediately some of the examples in my online concordance. Of course, there may be other constraints that I am not seeing, but counting words of a particular form with accentuation is fully transparent on my concordance. You can see at a glance and I can verify that there is no error or omission from queries on my database,

Here is example 1 - dryness - krb 

/krb/ is a high usage root. It spells Horeb, e.g. בְּחֹרֵ֑ב in the domain of location. It is spelled with a tsere. And it spells sword, dagger, or ruins in the domain of violence. Here it is spelled with segol. E.g. בַּחֶ֔רֶב. In both these, the accent is on the first syllable of the root (excluding the preposition b). The concordance (linked above) gives exact counts for each combination of accents and vowels.

If you go to its next meaning, it is used for the verb to drain. And finally the result of draining, dryness, desert, deserted, etc. Here the accent is on the second syllable of the word and sometimes the third.

The example in the book is Judges 6:37 where the word occurs by itself. 

The masora, he tells me, indicates the word 16. But it's not the traditional 'tz (9+7). It is spelled iv (10+6). This raises another question. 

Is this a count? I wondered if the Masoretes were creating a concordance as they copied, or had such a tool already to hand. I see 9 references to /krb/ without suffix or prefix, three in the passage in Judges, vv 37, 39, 40. Then also Isaiah - twice, 25:5 and 61:4, then Genesis, Haggai, Ezekiel, Job, each having 1 occurrence. Then further down in the list sorted in word form sequence including diacritics, 5 more. Then I go back to Horeb and find the word once in the form without prefix or suffix, and 168 more as sword. Grand total for this root in this word form is 183 spread across several domains of usage and with varied accentuation.

What could '16' mean? Martín-Contreras cites Ginsburg:

According to the list in Ginsburg’s compilation, the sixteen references are: Gen. 31.40 (חֹ֖רֶב); Judg. 6.37, 39, 40; Jer. 36.30; 49.13; 50.38; Ezek. 29.10; Isa. 4.6; 25.4; 25.5, 5; 61.4; Zeph. 2.14; Hag. 1.11; and Job 30.30.

 Some of these are with specific prefixes. There is no solution but to look at these one at a time, and my surmise is that the '16' are too different to be considered as a group. 

M-C's conclusion is that these '16' are different because the tsere distinguishes Horeb from dryness. "those with segol and penultimate stress are cases of the common noun, [krb] drought, parching heat, desolation/dryness (Brown 1952), and those with tsere and stress on the ultima are instances of the proper name [krb] Horeb".

There are many more to ponder.

I have to leave this for a while since I have now moved and will be working from temporary locations for some time to come (3-6 months) as we build a new place to call home - temporarily of course, as is the case with all our places.