Biblical Hebrew Forum

["VALEDICTION" <info AT valediction.com>]

Greetings Colleagues:
I am but a novice with Hebrew, and so kindly request a simplified response
to this question:

In Numbers 13:19-20, the word translated "or" occurs repeatedly.

Is the land good "or" bad?
Are the towns unwalled "or" fortified?
Is the soil fertile "or" poor?
Are there trees "or" not?

I noticed that these are all pros versus cons, with the good aspect always
being listed first.

Now, let's back up an look at verse 18.

"See what the land is like and whether they people who live there are strong
"or" weak, few "or" many." (NIV)

Although all of the English translations I have checked seem to insert the
word for "or" twice in this verse, I only see the word used once in the
original language, between few "or" many.

Hence, the way I read this verse is more along the lines of this:

"See what the land is like; observe the people who dwell therein; count up
the strong (since the land is vulnerable) are they few or many?"

This seems to make more sense to me based on the words I see in the original
language as well as the fact that "strong vs. weak" does not follow the
pattern of "good vs. bad" which is set forth in the rest of the passage.

As I look at the original language and try to understand the purpose behind
our English translations, I expect to see the word for "weak" listed first,
then the word for "or", and thirdly the word for "strong"... yet I don't see
this.

Here comes my question:
Was "or" inserted between strong and weak because the translators simply
felt it was "missing", or is there a grammatical explanation for this
phenomenon?

Would like to get some feedback on this, but please keep it on the
elementary level so that I can follow along.

Kindest Regards,

Joe Glean --junior member--