Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lewis Reich
>
>
> 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.
But he does this to get money.
I see Lev. 27 as indicating the temple acts as a bank, like everywhere in
the ane.
In the opening verses, a person dedicates a person.
But in reality he sells the person, his wife or child, or a slave to the
temple.
These are the prices the temple pays for the person sold.
But these are really intended to be loans.
The seller has the hope of getting his child or wife or slave back.
So sometimes, he sells it for less money, hoping to be able to
redeem him/her for less money.
The same with houses, fields etc.
If the house or field or person is not redeemed by the Jubilee,
the person or field then becomes the property of the temple.
If he redeems it prior to the jubilee, he pays the temple one-fifth,
plus its assessed value.

  If
> we were dealing with regular loans, would there have been any need
> for Hillel to institute the famous prozbul?
The prozbol instituted a procedure for debts to
continue to be paid during the sabbatical year.
It was decided banks weren't people and didn't have to observe
the release of debts in the sabbatical year.
Lev. 27,interestingly, says nothing about a sabbatical year.
Release of debts in the sabbatical year is only in Deut. 15.
It is not priestly legislation.
I doubt it involved the temple or the priests.
Malachi uses priestly language.

>
> > 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.
True enough!
But it must mean that God is going to devote the land to himself.
That is what Herem means, devoted to the lord.
Perhaps it will lie fallow.
>
> 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?
The English Day of the Lord has to do with Jesus's coming.
His coming averts the day of the lord, I think.
I don't think English translations are always relevant.
Liz

>
> 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
>
>
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