Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <paul AT smcfm.org>]

Clayton,

Why couldn't he be speaking to the corpse?  It appears consistent with the
fact that we have a summary execution in the heat of the moment.  David was
not giving a reasoned, cautious judgment here.  Of course, the dead man
could not hear, but those around would hear and report that David considered
himself a revenger of God's anointed.  Looks to me like a sequential
understanding is very plausible here.

Paul Zellmer

> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of CS Bartholomew
> Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 1:40 PM
> To: hebrew
> Subject: [b-hebrew] 2Sam 1:15-16 temporal sequence
>
>
> 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?
>
> Note how TEV and NAB solve this problem:
>
> TEV
> 2Sam. 1:15 Then David called one of his men and said,  ³Kill him!² The man
> struck the Amalekite and mortally wounded him,
> 2Sam. 1:16 and David said
>
> NAB
> 2Sam. 1:15 David then called one of the attendants and said to
> him,  ³Come,
> strike him down²; and the youth struck him a mortal blow.
> 2Sam. 1:16 Meanwhile David said to him,
>
> greetings,
> Clay Bartholomew
>
>
>
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