Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Kirk [mailto:Peter_Kirk AT sil.org]
> Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2000 5:04 PM
> To: Liz Fried; Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: The 24 hour "evening and mornings" ??? (Peter)
>
>
> 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.
Dear Peter,
Personally speaking, I would say this phrase doesn't differentiate those
two possibilities. Life is measured in days. I don't recall the
expression kol xayyecha. It is always days of our lives (Gee, that sounds
like a soap opera, <g>).
But if this is in reference to Gen 1, I don't think it applies. In Gen 1
you have reference to evening and morning. These are there to delimit
a (24 hour) day. These reference points are there to delimit an actual day.
I think that kol yemey xayyeka also indicates actual days, a life time's
worth,
because as I said, this is how a life is measured. It means "all his life"
but
it's counted in days.

Best,
Liz
>
> 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)
>
> <snip>
>