Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> >> 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"? 

"As a member of the president's cabinet, he enjoys special 
privileges..."  There's nothing mysterious about "as one of the tribes" 
at all, it's perfectly good English and perfectly good Hebrew.  But the 
context of the thread makes it clear why you want to play word 
games with it, so I didn't expect you to respond any differently.

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.

"Normally"?  Don't make me laugh.  K- has a wide range of 
meanings and no one of them is more "normal" than the other.  It's 
clear you've finally learned to read some Hebrew in the last couple 
of years, but bear in mind that a little knowledge is a dangerous 
thing.  The meaning that best fits this verse can be paraphrased 
something like "Dan will judge his people from within inasmuch as 
he is one of them."  The verse is an obvious play on the name Dan 
who, being (as) one of the tribes of Israel, will emerge as a judge 
over the nation as a whole.  There's not even a hint anywhere in the 
context that he wasn't really a tribe.

Furthermore, if you maintain that this meaning of K- is so "normal" 
you need to explain why every English version on the market 
disagrees with you.  If you can't follow the meaning of the English 
phrase, that's not the fault of the text.

I won't pursue this any further, so go ahead and have the last word 
and I'll leave it to the rest of the group to decide which translation is 
more likely.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Don't let your mind wander.  
It's too little to be left alone."