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  • From: "Bill Ross" <wross AT farmerstel.com>
  • To: "'Biblical Hebrew'" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: End of Malachi: Kherem.
  • Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 10:31:33 -0600


My understanding is that it literally means "devoted" and hence can apply
to:

* a "harem" of women devoted to the sultan's good pleasures
* prisoners of war devoted to destruction
* a people on an inviolable path to destruction (hence, cursed)

Bill Ross

-----Original Message-----
From: Lewis Reich [mailto:lewreich AT javanet.com]
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 12:33 AM
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: End of Malachi: Kherem.


I happened to look at a translation of the last two verses of Malachi today
and was somewhat surprised to see "pen avo v'hiketi et ha'aretz kherem"
(my apologies for not following our usual transliteration scheme) translated
as "lest I come and strike the land with a curse".

The traditional Jewish commentaries indicate that some dire destruction or
desolation is portended here, which is not what I associate with the literal
meaning of "kherem", but strikes me as a reasonable interpretation. What
puzzled me is why the English would have "curse", rather than, say "strike
the land desolate"..

Is this the generally accepted rendering in English (I have only one
translation at hand)?

Lewis Reich





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