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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Was Pharaoh "Touched" or "Plagued" by God at Genesis 12:17?
  • Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:12:35 +0300

Jim,

We've already established that NG( has a wide range of meanings. What you're doing now is discussing the meaning of the English word "plague". This is not quite the purpose of this list. Please stick to the meaning of the Hebrew.

Yigal Levin


----- Original Message ----- From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2008 11:53 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Was Pharaoh "Touched" or "Plagued" by God at Genesis 12:17?



Karl W. Randolph:

1. You wrote: “The meaning of נגע NG( when looking at all its uses in the
Bible is "to
reach out to touch, used for all touching from soft caresses to a hard blow
intended to injure or kill, also for sexual contact". As such, that is not
the same meaning as used in English.”

I agree that nun-gimel-ayin means “to reach out to touch”, in a wide variety
of applications. In Hebrew, to “touch” in this sense could be, but need not
be, to render “a hard blow intended to injure or kill”. Or it could refer
to, but need not refer to, “sexual contact”.

As a noun, in its second use at Genesis 12: 17, Gesenius says that
nun-gimel-resh means “stroke, blow, mark, spot”. It really means “touch”, viewed
broadly. Genesis 12: 17 says that YHWH “touched” (nun-gimel-ayin) Pharaoh and
Pharaoh’s household with “strokes, blows, marks or spots” or “touchings”
(nun-gimel-ayin) of considerable magnitude.

2. You wrote: “Genesis doesn't give us the details of how God "touched"
pharaoh, other than that it was great, and given the term's broad uses, "plague"
fits the
context.”

One important “detail” that Genesis does give is that YHWH “touched”
Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household. That means that YHWH did not rain down a plague on
Egypt as a whole. So we are not dealing with a plague afflicting the country
of Egypt. No, we are dealing with YHWH “touching” Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s
household.

In what sense does translating nun-gimel-ayin as “plague” at Genesis 12: 17 “
fit the context”?

It is perhaps possible that Pharaoh and many people in Pharaoh’s household
came down with the plague of leprosy. But Pharaoh does not say that at Genesis
12: 18-19 (quoted below). And why would Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household
coming down with leprosy or some similar disease be interpreted by Pharaoh to mean
that Sarah must be a married woman?

Note that Pharaoh does not claim that either he has been afflicted by
infirmities or an individual plague, or that Egypt has been afflicted by a plague:

“And Pharaoh called Abram, and said: 'What is this that thou hast done unto
me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou: She is
my sister? so that I took her to be my wife; now therefore behold thy wife,
take her, and go thy way.'” Genesis 12: 18-19

Pharaoh’s reference to “that thou hast done unto me” is Pharaoh’s claim
that Abraham has allegedly put Pharaoh into an immoral situation by reason of the
fact that Sarah, who has been in Pharaoh’s harem for a short time, is a
married woman. That meaning is clarified by the immediately following line: “why
didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?” Pharaoh is not claiming at
Genesis 12: 18 that Pharaoh has been afflicted by an individual plague, or that
Egypt has been afflicted by a plague. No, Pharaoh is claiming that Abraham has
put Pharaoh into a potentially immoral situation, allegedly under false
pretenses, which in turn has led to a sharp divine communication to Pharaoh (by
means of both Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household being divinely “touched”) to cease
and desist immediately as to Sarah being in Pharaoh’s harem. This sharp
divine communication affected not only Pharaoh individually, but also Pharaoh’s
household generally, and it was done in such a way that all attention
immediately focused on Sarah. Note, importantly, that YHWH makes this a p-u-b-l-i-c
matter. Since Pharaoh’s household has been divinely and unpleasantly “touched”
by YHWH, in a way that focuses attention on Sarah’s curious and unpleasant
plight, all of Egypt will soon know of Sarah’s awkward situation. We should
ask ourselves why it is important that Sarah’s awkward situation becomes
p-u-b-l-i-c knowledge throughout Egypt.

Since all of Pharaoh’s household is undoubtedly buzzing about these divine,
undesired “touchings”, which in turn would set all of Egypt buzzing about
these divine and undesired “touchings”, the necessary implication is that Pharaoh
summoned Abraham to a very p-u-b-l-i-c audience with Pharaoh at Genesis 12:
17-18 to deal with this matter. Pharaoh in effect loudly tells all of Egypt
that this woman who was recently introduced into Pharaoh’s harem is the wife
of this monotheistic man from Canaan. Then instead of having Abraham impaled
(cf. Genesis 40: 22), or throwing Abraham into jail (cf. Genesis 39: 20), or at
least confiscating Abraham’s new great wealth that Abraham has just now
amassed in Egypt, this is what Pharaoh does regarding the Hebrew monotheist from
Canaan, his wife, and his possessions:

“And Pharaoh gave men charge concerning him; and they brought him on the
way, and his wife, and all that he had.” Genesis 12: 20

Remember now, Pharaoh does all this high-profile action in p-u-b-l-i-c. Can
you imagine the incredible buzz in Egypt? Why would this Pharaoh have wanted
that particular buzz? Everyone in Egypt would be buzzing about Pharaoh’s
special treatment of this monotheist (Abraham) from Canaan. It is perhaps easier
to see why that buzz (malicious gossip) was an unpleasant ordeal that Abraham
and Sarah had to endure, as part of a series of divine tests showing them to
be worthy of being the first Hebrew monotheists.

At the end of the day, we do not know the precise way in which YHWH “touched”
Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household. What the text says at Genesis 12: 17 is
that God “reached out to touch” (nun-gimel-ayin) Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s
household, with “touches” of great magnitude. That was the clear, unambiguous divine
signal that Pharaoh was to return Sarah to Abraham. Which Pharaoh promptly
did.

YHWH touched Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household. It likely was a harsh touch.
It certainly made a big impression on everyone. We know that Pharaoh got the
divine message, loud and clear, that’s for sure. But I see an English
translation of “plague” as being unwarranted at Genesis 12: 17, as it fails
miserably to reflect the nuances and ambiguities of the wonderful Hebrew word
nun-gimel-ayin/“touch”.

Why YHWH “touched” Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household with great magnitude in
such a p-u-b-l-i-c way is one key to understanding what is going on in
chapter 12 of Genesis. Another key is to understand that Pharaoh is reacting to
Abraham as a monotheist, not as the consort of an irresistibly physically
attractive woman (Sarah, who is age 65 “years” and almost beyond the normal age of
childbearing in the ancient world).

We see that the old Pharaoh in chapter 12 of Genesis gives “special treatment”
to Hebrew monotheist Abraham. Ditto for the young Pharaoh at the end of
Genesis for Hebrew monotheist Joseph. Why? Why this special treatment? Are
these believable stories, that would have seemed credible to their initial Hebrew
audiences?

These stories make sense, both logically and historically, if and only if the
old Pharaoh at the end of his reign, and the young Pharaoh throughout his
reign, were semi-monotheists, who respected Abraham, Joseph and Jacob/“Israel”
as being fellow monotheists after a fashion. Otherwise, the Pharaohs’ actions
towards (special treatment of) Abraham, Joseph and Jacob are inexplicable.
That in turn solidifies the historical time period of the Patriarchal Age as
being the Late Bronze Age. These stories are credible, and make sense, only in
that one particular, peculiar, unique historical time period.

I agree that nun-gimel-ayin often has a different meaning than the normal
meaning of the English word “touch”, which I believe was the point you were
validly making. But if the English word “touch” is viewed very broadly, then I
nevertheless see it as being a better translation than the English word “plague”
, which destroys all the subtleties, nuances, overtones and ambiguities in
the Hebrew original, and even, in my opinion, misrepresents what the Hebrew text
is actually saying. YHWH communicated to YHWH a specific message, by harshly
“touching” Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s household.

Genesis 32: 25 importantly uses the same word nun-gimel-ayin/“touch”, when a
divine figure “touches” Jacob and then re-names Jacob as “Israel”. You
would not say that that divine figure “plagued” Jacob, would you? No, although
Jacob thereafter has a terrible limp (like the immediate successor,
historically, of the young Pharaoh at the end of Genesis), this phenomenon of being
divinely “touched” has the same fundamental ambiguity in Hebrew at Genesis 32: 25
as it does at Genesis 12: 17. This is the mysterious divine “touch” in the
Patriarchal narratives. It is not gentle or pleasant, but it’s not a “plague”
either. Rather, it is a harsh divine “touch”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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  • Re: [b-hebrew] Was Pharaoh "Touched" or "Plagued" by God at Genesis 12:17?, Yigal Levin, 08/18/2008

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