Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

But Liz, there is a difference in English. If you say "He drank vodka all
the days of his life", do you mean that he drank at least some vodka every
single day of his life (to say nothing of the nights!), or just that he
regularly (but not necessarily every day) drank vodka for the whole of his
life? That is an important difference. But I would not know which way to
call on this in English as this is not a natural expression. In English we
would usually say "every day of his life" for the first meaning and "all his
life" for the second. My understanding of the Hebrew idiom is that it means
the latter, not the former. I would be interested in any comments, or
confirmation or refutation of this understanding from published works.

Peter Kirk

----- Original Message -----
From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 5:26 PM
Subject: RE: The 24 hour "evening and mornings" ??? (Peter)


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Peter Kirk [mailto:Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]
> > Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 7:55 PM
> > To: Biblical Hebrew
> > Subject: Re: The 24 hour "evening and mornings" ??? (Peter)
> >
> >
> > Sorry, Liz, but which part of this are you claiming is a correct
statement
> > by Ian? The part "By exactly the same argument, KOL YEMEY XAYYEYKA in
Gen
> > 3:17 does not mean 'every day of your life', it means 'the whole of your
> > life'." was written by me and quoted and rejected by Ian. But you seem
to
> > agree with my statement, whch concerns meaning and not literal
> > (but in this
> > case misleading) translation. (Though even in English "all the days of
my
> > life" does not mean "every day of my life".) Or have I misunderstood
you?
>
> Well, I'm quite confused,actually. The literal translation is
> "All the days of your life."
> This is the literal, word for word translation.
> I don't see any difference in meaning between that
> and "the whole of your life," or more vernacularly, all your life,
> or your whole life. All these meanings mean every day until you die.
> I don't understand how it the literal translation is misleading,
> and I don't understand how "all the days of my life" in English
> does not mean "every day of my life."
> Now the rabbis asked, why just the days and not the nights,
> and they made some distinction based on something or other.
> But in this case they are simply applying midrash. There is no
> difference in meaning between all the days of my life, and all
> my life. The days are 24 hour days and include the nights too
> --- ohhhh! is that what the argument is about????
> OK, well the rabbis discuss this, but I don't remember what they
> base their arguments on, and I think they are stiving for a
> theological answer, rather than giving the peshat.
> According to the peshat, these are 24 hours days, it's not just
> the days, but the nights too.
>
> Sorry for the rambling and the thinking aloud.
> Liz
>
> I don't remember any more what it is apropos of.
>
> >
> > Peter Kirk
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
> > To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> > Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 11:42 PM
> > Subject: RE: The 24 hour "evening and mornings" ??? (Peter)

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