Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Polycarp66 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 5/6/2002 9:27:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
info AT valediction.com writes:

My question is in regard to the original Hebrew.  I know that puctuation
marks don't exist in the original... so how do you know whether your dealing
with a statement or a rhetorical question here in verses 12b-13 of Ezekiel
28?
__________________________


Note the introduction to the oracle:

WaY:HiY D:BaR_YHWH )"LaY L")MoR
BeN_)fDfM &f) QiYNfH (aL_MeLeK +oWR

And the word of Yahweh [came] to me saying,
"Son of man, take up a dirge over the King of Tyre"

or more colloquially,

The word of Yahweh to me was,
"Man, deliver a eulogy regarding the King of Tyre"

Would you expect a eulogy to be a question?

Moreover, the classic case of questioning is probably in Job 38-41.

Here we see 

38.2   MiY ZeH                          Who is this?
38.4    )"YPoH HfYiYTf               Where were you?
38.5   MiY_&fM                          Who established?
38.12  H:MiY.fMeKf  +iW.iYTf      Have you commanded in your days? [very FE 
--                                                                          
                                                      or naturally -- Have 
you during your life . . .?]

We don't see these markers in Ezek 28.12

gfsomsel