Searching for יַעֲק֑וֹב (Jacob)

When I search for the correct spelling of Jacob's name (יַעֲק֑וֹב) with a vav, I also get all the misspelled references (without the vav). Yes, they are all references to Jacob the person, but it strikes me as odd. Jacob's name is spelled correctly only five times:

Leviticus 26:42
Jeremiah 30:18
Jeremiah 33:26
Jeremiah 46:27
Jeremiah 51:19

Does anyone know why Logos software was designed to do this?

Is there a way to search for one spelling and not the other?

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Vincent Setterholm

Lots of words in the Hebrew Bible can be spelled with a holem or with a holem-vav. One isn't more right than the other (despite one of the names for the short form being 'defective', as opposed to 'plene [full]'). It can be a bit arbitrary which form is used as the lexical form (the first form in a dictionary), but in the case of Jacob, as you noticed, the short form is used in the vast majority of the instances of this name, so that's what most lexicons and databases use as the lexical form.

If you want to find all instances of יַעֲקֹב, regardless of the spelling, make sure to select the 'lemma' from the right-click menu of a Hebrew Bible (or Reverse Interlinear) and 'search this resource'. If you then click on the 'analysis' view of your search results, you can sort the hits by surface form by dragging the 'result' column to the top, though this currently splits on accents, so you can have to scroll a bit to see all the hits you're looking for on a really common word.

If you just want to run a consonantal search on the surface forms, you can run something like:

*יעקוב*

I'd recommend only running that against one Bible, as those wildcards won't be very fast against your whole library.

BKMitchell

Greetings Jack Hairston,

In addition to what Vincent Setterholm has already said, I would like to say:

You are very observant indeed! AND Guess what? ... The five verses with Jacob's named spelled 'Ktiv Male' you uncoverd, in your search, match up with the list in the Massorah Gedolah!

See page 99 (or note 822)of: Wｅｉｌ, Gérard. E. Massorah Gedolah: Manuscrit B. 19a de Léningrad. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 2001. (in Logos)

What you have discovered is what is usually known as: Kitv Haser (defective Spelling) and Ktiv Male(full spelling/Plene Spelling). Here are some very short definitions of this:

"plene spelling (from Latin “full”) the form of a word in the Heb text that includes all of the vowel letters." Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael Fishbane, eds., The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 2137. (In Logos)

"defective spelling the form of a word in the Heb text that is missing one or more optional vowel letters" Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael Fishbane, eds., The Jewish Study Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 2126.” (in Logos)

Just in case you want to know more read the following:

F. I. Andersen and A. D. Forbes, Spelling in the Hebrew Bible (BibOr 41; Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1986). (in Logos)
James Barr, The Variable Spellings of the Hebrew Bible (The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy 1986; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)
F. M. Cross, Jr. and D. N. Freedman,Early Hebrew Orthography(New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1952).

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/595607#Comment_595607

Something that also bears mentioning is that so-called "defective" spelling is very likely the original spelling since the use of matres lectionis was, generally speaking, a later invention.

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