The Hebrew Word hmmd and the Root d-m-m I 377 pertains to two of the three biblical passages where the word hmmd occurs: 1 Kgs 19,12 and Job 4,16. Levine translates the phrase from Job 4,16 that includes hmmd as “droning voice” (lwqw hmmd) and considers that “a derivation from d-m- m II might be more accurate” (7). He bases this conclusion on a consideration of the context, a consideration of the Septuagint translation “breeze and voice” (au[ra kai; fwnhv), and the fact that the Akkadian cognate dam˝mu indicates the sound of wind blowing through reeds. Similarly, context and the Septuagint’s translation of hmmd with au[ra in Ps 107,29 suggests that the NJPS translation “whisper” is correct (8). He suggests that these two biblical usages help to explain the perplexing hqd hmmd lwq of 1 Kgs 19,12. 2. The Word hmmd in the Bible In the Bible, the word occurs in only three passages, which I translate below in order to make explicit how I understand them: 11. He said, “Go out, stand on the mountain before the Lord, since, lo, the Lord is (about to) cross (before it). A great, strong wind was breaking up mountains and shattering rocks before the Lord. The Lord was not in the wind. After the wind (there came) an earthquake; the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake (came) fire. The Lord was not in the fire. 12. After the fire (came) a sound of gentle quiet (hmmd). 13. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak . . . (1Kgs 19,11-13) (9). silence’”. LEVINE, “Phenomenology of Mourning”, 100, instead, proposes reading as a noun “lament” in construct with the following “dead” or reading μd as an μd imperative from d-m-m II (“to mourn, moan”) and translating: “Groan! Moan!”. (7) LEVINE, “Phenomenology of Mourning”, 101-102. (8) LEVINE, “Phenomenology of Mourning”, 102, agrees with the NJPS translation of hmmd as “whisper” since “All motion did not stop at once; there was a breeze that was audible, after which the waves fell silent”. I fail to see how the context of this verse implies that all motion did not cease suddenly. In accord with the NJPS translation, the NIB translates “whisper” and the NAB “murmur”. By contrast, the NJB translates as “calm” and the NRSV with a verbal phrase: “be still”. (9) Translations are my own, unless stated otherwise. Scholars interpret the phrase containing hmmd in different ways. J.T. WALSH, 1Kings (Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry; Collegeville, MN 1996) 276, suggests that the phrase in 1 Kgs 19,12 is an oxymoron, paradoxical in the way that the related phrase “silence and sound” is in Job 4,16: “The numinous power of the image lies precisely in our inability to grasp it — a quality utterly lost by translations that render it ‘a thin, whispering sound’ or the like”. R.D. NELSON,