Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>> Even Genesis seems dimly aware of Dan's position. See 
>> Gen 49:16, which says, "Dan shall judge his people as if 
>> one of the tribes of Israel." -- k'xd $b+y y$r'l --, ie 
>> Dan was not a tribe of Israel, but shall perform like 
>> one
>
>How on earth do you justify translating K(XD "as *if* one"?  That's 
>not what it says, and every English translation I have found reads 
>"as one of the tribes," which means something very different.  

Sorry, Dave, but what on earth do you mean by "as one of the 
tribes"? The text doesn't say that Dan *is* a tribe of Israel, 
but is *like* a tribe of Israel. k- normally supplies a simile 
to show that something [A] is like something else [B], ie A is 
not B, suggesting Dan was not a tribe of Israel.


Ian


>You 
>can't just slip an off-beat translation like this into the discussion 
>without backing it up somehow.  It may be a translation that 
>supports your ideas, but that hardly constitutes evidence that it's 
>correct.