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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: Malachi 2:16
  • Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 06:43:18 -0700

On 01/09/2003 04:47, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

...

It is possible that another reading, given in some translations, may be
correct:

"For He hates divorce, says the Lord God of Israel. One covers violence
over his garment, says the Lord of Hosts.

This translation depnds on several understandings. First, in Mal 2:16 the
Lord would speak of Himself in the third person, as He does in 1:9. Second,
2:16 would continue the reference to God in the third person that occurs in
2:13-15. And third, it requires a reader's understanding that the verb
about covering oneself with violence could not refer to God, even though
there would be no outward change in subject.

However, 2:13-15 is probably not the Lord speaking directly, but the
prophet, for the prophet seems to be speaking beginning in verse 10.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard
translator, HCSB




Are you in effect suggesting that we have indirect speech in the first line of v.16? After all, if the line read "'amar yhwh 'elohey yisra'el kiy-sane' shallax", then we would have no qualms about translating as indirect speech, "the LORD God of Israel says that he hates divorce". And the first two lines of this verse seem to be poetic parallels, which may explain the departure from the normal word order.

Are there any unambiguous cases of an indirect speech introducer like 'amar XXX following the speech? Cynthia Miller writes "the frame of indirect speech necessarily appears only initially since the quotation is syntactically subordinate to the frame" ("Introducing Direct Discourse in Biblical Hebrew Narrative", p.203 of R.D. Bergen (ed) "Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics", SIL 1994), but this is a non sequitur as it is by no means necessarily always true that subordinate clauses follow their main clauses.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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