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  • From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
  • To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: End of Malachi: Kherem.
  • Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 14:31:33 -0500


This is very interesting, Lewis.
The application of Herem to land is seen in Lev. 27: 21.
The land is not going to be destroyed, it simply becomes temple property.
I have long thought that these verses in Leviticus showed that
the temple did own land in the Persian period and before.
It acquired land in the same way other temples in the ane did,
from making loans to those who couldn't repay.
Speculating about Malachi, it may simply mean
that people would become in a position in which they
couldn't pay their debts, and the land would revert to the temple.
That is, God will come and take the land and devote it to himself.

Liz
(some interesting discussions on this list)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bill Ross [mailto:wross AT farmerstel.com]
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2000 11:32 AM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: RE: End of Malachi: Kherem.
>
>
> 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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