Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Dear Clay:

Here is one place where the lack of temporal indications in Biblical Hebrew 
seems to cause confusion. When David said verse 16 to the Amalekite either 
precedes verse 15, or more likely just after he called to his soldier to kill 
him.

A more famous example of such lack of temporal indications is Genesis 2:19 
where it appears that God created the animals after man, while chapter one 
tells the order of creation in which the animals were created prior to man. 
In English we would add the temporal indications that show that the animals 
were created prior to man but Hebrew doesn’t.

KL +B
Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>

> David orders the execution of the messenger reporting Saul's death.
> 
> 2Sam. 1:15 wyqr) dwd l)xd mhn(ryM wy)mr g# pg( bw wykhw wymt
> 2Sam. 1:16 wy)mr )lyw dwd dmyK [dmK] (l r)#K ky pyK (nh bK l)mr )nky mtty )t
> m#yx yhwh s
> 
> At the end of verse 15 and beginning of verse 16 we see a sequence of events
> which are carried along by a series of wy... verb forms. But the narrative
> sequence isn't strictly linear is it? At the beginning of verse 16 David
> isn't really speaking to a corpse  wy)mr )lyw dwd ...  is he? David's
> discourse in verse 16 does not appear to follow (temporal sequence) the last
> clause in verse 15 but describes something that takes place while the
> messenger is dying. Perhaps David's speech is just over the body of the man
> and addressed to someone else?
> 
> Do we have a summary of the events in verse 15 followed by an expansion in
> verse 16 so that the temporal sequence which seems to march right along up
> to verse 16a is interrupted to tell us some more detail about what has just
> taken place?
> 
<snip>
> 
> greetings,
> Clay Bartholomew
-- 
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