Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

Hi Yigal, you wrote:

> At 07:30 PM 11/19/2002 +0300, S. L. wrote:
>> Dear List,
>> does anybody have an idea of how to interpret Deut 29:18 "the moist and
the
> >dry alike" and of how to make  sense of this verse's syntax (i.e. how to
> >understand it verbatim)? The expression reappears in a slightly different
> >form  the Quern Rule of Community 1QS II 14.
> >    Serge Lyosov
>

snip

>
> My understanding is that this is a description of a person who does not
> follow the covenant and does whatever his instincts demand, "to quench
> thirst with drinking". In Hebrew, of course, the terms are reversed, so
> literally, "to quench with drinking thirst".
>

noted and snipped

Yigal,
How do you reconcile the syntax of the Hebrew with "to quench with drinking
thirst"?  The preposition 'et-- "with"-- has  "the thirsty" as its object,
not "the saturated."

Would you reconsider and read "to quench the drinking with thirst"?

I am uncomfortable with your neglect of the definite articles on the
adjectives.  I think it reads "the saturated" and "the thirsty."

I am also skeptical that the root means "adding" in general or quenching in
so mundane a context.  I think it is always used to describe utter
devastation.  When it means "add" it means "to heap on devastation."

For what it's worth the LXX translates hINA MH SUNAPOLESH hO hAMARTWLOS TON
ANAMARTHTON
"...so that the sinner may perish with the blameless."

I suppose the sinner is drunk and the blameless is dry.


Shalom,
Bryan