Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Matthew Bell" <mbkbell AT aapi.co.uk>]

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> From: Irene Riegner <iriegner AT concentric.net>
> To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Subject: Re: The use of 'ken' in Exodus 7:22
> Date: 04 November 1998 16:40
> 
> "Ken" appears in Ex 7.22:  wyya(asw kn....
> --- and the Egyptian magicians did thus / likewise.....
> 
> In modern Hebrew, "ken" is understood as "yes," but the bibilical text
> doesn't use it in this way.  The word is rooted in "kwn," to be
> established, set up.  One of its many uses is that it points to / refers
> to something that is performed and completed as in Gen 1.7 (last part of
> verse---wyhey ken---and it was thus) where it affirms the separation of
> the waters.  In Ex 7.22 "ken" refers to the ability of Moses to change
> the water of the Nile into blood, an act which was also done by the
> Egyptian priests.  I would translate "ken" as "thus" or "likewise," and
> understand it as an affirmation of Moses' act.

M.Bell
Thanks Irene. Just to take it a little further, how could the egyptian priests
do 'thus' or 'likewise', i.e. change the water to blood if it was blood and 
not
water? Would it be a legitimate understanding of ken that it refers only to 
the
duplication of the act, i.e. changing (other) water to blood, and not to
specifically duplicating the act and extent of Moses/Aaron's feat?

Thanks
M.Bell