C 419 ] 
It frequently occurs, both in a limited and unlimited 
fenfe, in the Old Teftament; and accommodates 
itfelf, according to (55) Guffetius, to the nature of 
the fubjeft to which it is applied. Which if we ad- 
mit, when applied to men, it mull denote the term 
or period of human life. And in this fignificatien it 
(56) fometimes may be met with in holy writ, as it 
manifestly is in our infcription. The Vau here, in 
conformity to the Phoenician cuftom, is fuppreffed. 
But for a farther account of this word, recourfe may 
be had to the learned Sontagius, in (57) his dilfer- 
tation upon the terms chty and QV, printed at Aitorf, 
in 1695. 
1 2. The Hebrew noun D1JOD, from whence ODJOD- 
and is deduced from the (58) verb sjo, 
dolvit. By the extrulion of the two quiefcent let- 
ters, Jlleph and V au> the fubftantive becomes 
(the fame in pronunciation with DlfOD) as it appears 
in our infcription. Nor is it to be wondered at, that, 
before the invention of the vowel-points, the qui- 
efcent letters fhould have fometimes been fupprefled, 
as they had in reality no power at all. Inftances of 
fuch a fyncope, or extrufion, as that here obferved, 
are not feldom found in the facred writings of the 
Old Teftament. And that this was really the cafe 
with regard to the word 3DQ, the Chaldee term 
.( 55 ) Jacob. Gullet. Comment . Ling. Ebraic . p. 1160, 1161. 
Lipfiae, 1743. 
(56) Psal. LXXXIX. 1. CXIX. 44. h alib. 
( 57 ) Chriftoph. Sontag. in Divert, de D^W periodica & DP 
■zterno, Altorfii, 1695. 
(58) Leonhard. Reckenberg. ubi fup, p. y^, 
H h h 2 * 03 , 
