Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jonathan Bailey <jonathan.bailey AT gmx.net>]

I am sitting here looking at the Metsad Chashavyahu inscription wondering
why there are doublets in it. Look at how I have divided the clauses:

1    y$m( )dny h&r
2    )t dbr (bdh (bdk
3    qcr  hyh (bdk bx
4    cr )sm wyqcr (bdk
5    wykl w)sm kymm lpny $b
6    t k)$r kl (bdk )t qcr w)
7    sm kymm wyb) hw$(yhw bn >$b
8    y wyqx )t bgd (bdk k)$r klt
9    )t qcry zh ymm lqx )t bgd (bdk
10  wkl )xy y(nw ly hqcrm )ty bxm
11  h$m$ )xy y(nw ky )mn nqty m)
12  $m h$b n) )t bgdy w)m l) l&r lh$
13  b )t bgd (bdk wttn )lw rx
14  mm wh$bt )t bgd (bdk wl) tdhm

Well, I was just writing this while waiting for a class, and the time has
gotten away. I don't have time to offer a translation and mark the verb
sequencing as I see it, but it should be obvious that the wyqx at the 
beginning
of line 8 ends the first sequence and the second is begung with k)$r klt, a
qatal, which is then followed by another qatal (lqx), starting a new
sequence with nearly the same content as the first. Also, lines 10 and 11 
build two
sequences based on the yiqtol form y(nw with more or less the same content.

I filled in parts of 12, 13, and 14 from Sandra Gogel's suppositions, but
they do not come into play here. We obviously have doublets in an
inscription which does not represent centuries of religious traditions. So 
why would
anyone want to redact a text about a slave trying to get his coat back? Who
was it? J, E, P, or D?

Or should we just recognize that doublets are a semitic literary device,
and not clues of redaction?




Jon Bailey

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