Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Henry Churchyard <churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

> Subject: Re: Judges 5:30
> From: George Athas <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>
> Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 09:16:47 +1000

[...]

I agree that there's kind of an implicit contrast between the
hypothetical hapless victims of 5:30 vs. Jael (and Deborah), but I
fail to see how a lexical contrast of _rah.am_ vs. _na`arah_ would be
relevant to this.  The main meaning of _na`arah_ is "marriageable but
unmarried woman", and so would apply to neither Jael nor Deborah;
while the main meaning of _rah.am_ seems to be "woman as seen from a
reductionist/objectified male viewpoint" (just as the main meaning of
the English word "earthling" is "inhabitant of the planet earth as
seen from a (hypothetical) alien viewpoint"), so that _rah.am_ doesn't
necessarily contain imputations about inherent moral character (unlike
some words which you proposed as possible English translations).

--
Henry Churchyard   churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/