Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Raymond de Hoop <rdehoop AT keyaccess.nl>]

At 08-05-2001 00:06 Ben Crick <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk> wrote:

>> Obviously this raises a host of other problems, which is why I
>> usually don't pay all that much attention to the accentuation except
>> in poetry.  I haven't checked it out in detail yet, but this looks like
>> a very awkward construction to me, which makes me suspect that
>> the accent is in the wrong place.
> 
> The text of the books of Samuel is notoriously difficult in places. SR 
> Driver
> notes on 2 Samuel 15:34
> 
> "`BDK  WG']  The accents must be disregarded.

Many of Driver's suggestions are superseded and this remark might be one of
them. It seems to me that when we are going to dismiss some evidence, we
should provide some arguments in favour of it. The Masoretic accentuation is
ignored quite often, but recent studies on the accentuation have shown that
it appears to be a quite reliable guide and tradition with regard to the
interpretation of the text.
 
I see no reason why the Masoretes would have erred here in 1 Sam 15:34. This
is not to say that a past interpretation of a yiqtol (e.g. ehey) would be
impossible, but just that in 1 Sam 15:34 a future tense of ehey does not
seem inappropriate.

Regards 
Raymond de Hoop