Proverbs 30:19:12Prov.30.19.W12TAB
בְּעַלְמָֽה׃
bealma
“with a young woman”
- Transliteration
- be-AL-ma
- Extended
- beh-AHL-mah
- IPA
- /bəˈʕal.maː/
Meaning by language
- English
- with a young woman
Hebrew · tap a syllable to hear it
Alphabet Analysis
| Bet | b with dagesh; v without dagesh | |
| Sheva | vocal sheva — a short 'e' (ə), begins a syllable | |
| Ayin | deep guttural stop, voiced pharyngeal | |
| Patach | short 'ah' as in father | |
| Lamed | l as in law | |
| Sheva | silent sheva — no sound; closes the syllable | |
| Mem | m as in mother | |
| Qamets | long 'ah' | |
| He | h as in house; silent at word end |
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The word
Word in context
- word
be-AL-ma
- phraseyour reading level
GE-ver be-AL-ma
- clause
ve-DE-rekh GE-ver be-AL-ma
- sentence
DE-rekh ha-NE-sher ba-sha-MA-yim DE-rekh na-KHASH a-LE TSUR DE-rekh-o-NI-ya be-LEV-YAM ve-DE-rekh GE-ver be-AL-ma
Exegesis
The third clause, derekh-oniyah be-lev-yam {דֶרֶךְ־אֳנִיָּה בְּלֶב־יָם | dĕ-rĕ-ḵ-ʾŏ-nî-yā bĕ-leḇ-yām} ‘way-of ship in-heart-of sea’, and the final clause, ve-derekh gever be-almah {וְדֶרֶךְ גֶּבֶר בְּעַלְמָה | wĕ-dĕ-rĕ-ḵ gĕ-ber bĕ-ʿal-māh} ‘and-way man with young woman’, form a syntactic parallelism.
The vav-conjunction wĕ {וְ} accelerates the poetic flow through asyndeton, and the preposition in be-almah {בְּעַלְמָה | bĕ-ʿal-māh} ‘with young woman’ permits relational ambiguity (‘with’ or ‘among’). The English translation retains the sequential ‘way of/how’ structure to preserve the Hebrew’s poetic and thematic emphasis on diverse paths.
Root and etymology
ʿ-l-mayin–lamed–mem
“young woman, maiden”
In context — Proverbs 30:19
The way of the eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman .
About this coordinate
Proverbs 30:19:12 is a BCV:P reference — Book · Chapter · Verse · Word Position. It addresses word 12 of Proverbs 30:19, so the Hebrew word בְּעַלְמָֽה׃ (bealma) can be cited, linked and studied at exactly this position rather than somewhere in the verse. In the Biblical Knowledge Coordinate System the same position is written Prov.30.19.W12, which extends further down to each syllable (Prov.30.19.W12.S1) and character.