Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <lewreich AT javanet.com>]

On 21 Feb 00, at 14:31, Liz Fried wrote:

> This is very interesting, Lewis.
> The application of Herem to land is seen in Lev. 27: 21.

What we know of herem from the way the word is used in the Pentateuch seems 
to indicate that it is a special category of qodesh;  Rashi on Lev. 27:21 
refers to Num 18:14, which provides that all herem goes to the priest.  Deut 
7:25 stands out as an exception - here herem is something very 
different, and seems to connect to the incident of Achan in Joshua.

> 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. 

I'm not sure I see that - the provision in Leviticus has to do not with 
loans, but with someone who dedicated his land to be qodesh.  If 
we were dealing with regular loans, would there have been any need 
for Hillel to institute the famous prozbul?  

> 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. 

That's an intriguing interpretation, but it somehow doesn't seem to 
me a dire enough consequence that it would take Elijah's 
appearance before the great and terrible day of YHWH to avert.  
And then there's Malachi's interesting use of the verb v'hiketi; I don't 
think there are other uses of the word herem that use such plague-
like lanuage.  

Any thoughts about why the traditional commentaries seem to 
interpret it as some kind of destruction, and  why one might translate 
into English as a curse?

Lewis Reich


> 

> > -----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