Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

At 07:53 AM 7/15/2003 +0200, Pere Porta Roca wrote:
>I'm inquiring if the first part of Is 43:10 (Atem 'eday...) must be
>translated as:
>
>a) You are my witnesses and (you) are, too/also, my servant whom I chose...
>
>b) You are my witnesses; and my servant, whom I chose in order to..., is my
>witness as well.
>
>I'll be grateful for your advice.
>
>Pere

Hi Pere,

I'd go with the first: after "witnessing" the nations in the previous
verse, YHWH now turns back to Israel, whom He calls "My witnesses and My
servant". The real question (to me) is why He suddenly shifts to the
singular, and then keeps addressing them in the plural: "that y'all shall
know and believe..."
Of course, there are other places in the Bible where such shifts occur, but
it seems strange here. Perhaps because He's referring to Jacob/Israel
generically (cf. vs. 1). 

Yigal





Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.