Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

Lloyd Barre wrote:

> Dear List People,
>
> I would be very interest in anyone's opinion with regard to these texts 
> from the Oracles of Balaam (the last is from the Blessing of Moses.  the 
> oracles makes several  refences to a king.  Who is this king and do the 
> texts tell us about him?
>

Lloyd, in the first extract at least, by the clues of poetic parallelism, the 
king is Yahweh. With regards to the Agag, there is some doubt - is a human 
king meant or a divine king? The Agag figure is somewhat ambiguous.The star 
in Jacob is
certainly a human king, though who is difficult to tell. David? Or an 
Israelite king like Omri?

Best,
GEORGE ATHAS
Dept of Semitic Studies,
University of Sydney
- Email: gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au
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