Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT xsinet.co.za>]

David Stabnow asked 
(w.r.t. 2 Sam 7:19: WZ)T TWRT H)DM )DNY YHWH_ "And this is
the law of mankind, Lord YHWH."
> 
...
> 
> My main question is whether Kaiser's position is tenable, and whether it
> has been established or demolished since 1974.
> 

Dave,

Kaiser's position strikes me as ad hoc.

I've proposed interpreting *torat-ha'adam* as a reference
back to the creation mandate - the blessing given to Adam
and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion (Gen
1:28).  The twin elements of this mandate (fruitfulness and
dominion) show up again to Noah after the flood (Gen 9:1ff),
and then as a promise to Abraham (Genesis 17), and now (as
David recognizes) in 2 Samuel 7 as well.

I view the parallel 1 Chronicles passage as a paraphrase
which through corruption or obscurity is not so helpful to
us at this distance.  Tentatively, I translate it "You see
me in appearance as the Adam who is to come" (cf. Romans
5:14).

(The above takes *tor* as a contraction of *to'ar* as
suggested by some commentators; alternatively, it is
tempting to see it as a corruption of *torat*, which might
give us: "You see me i.a.w. the teaching w.r.t. the Adam who
is to come."  The above is also a somewhat speculative
reading of *hamma`alah* but note the meaning of the adverb
*ma`lah* for future time in Hag 2:15, 18).

David recently had familiarized himself with the levitical
legislation in which the phrase *zo't torat ...* is so
common (after the incident of Uzzah).

I find confirmation of this interpretation in the following
context: note that the creation mamndate was given before
the fall into sin thus dominion was envisioned for the human
race over the creation.  The post-fall modification of the
creation mandate involves dominion over the wicked seed by
the righteous seed (Gen 3:15).  So following 2 Samuel 7 we
have a list of nations "subdued" by David (note *kibbesh*
for "subdued" in 2 Sam 8:11, compare to *kibshuha* in Gen
1:28), and their serpent-likeness epitomized by Hanun son of
Snake the Ammonite cutting off the garments of David's men
(like the serpent exposing their nakedness).

More details in my 1997 dissertation (The Curse on the
Serpent... Westminster Theol. Sem.)

Regards,

John