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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Re: agent or patient in Psa. 33:12?
  • Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 07:10:35 -0500

Dear Nachman,

OK. But can we get around the Beit prefix question to ask if 105:26 is
(deliberately) multivalent in its genitive ambiguity:

"Shalah Mosheh Avdo//Aharon asher bahar bo"

Who chose whom? Or Whom?

HH: When a statement can be read two ways, one should ask which one the author intended. To say that he intended both probably does not conform to reality except in certain uncommon cases. A writer is trying to communicate a message and doesn't usually want readers to switch subject and objects. There is such double entendre in humorous writing, but Psalm 105 is serious review of history. Some such switch might also occur in serious writing if a symbol is involved, but Psalm 105:26 is just one point along a line of historical review. While Ps 105:26 can give a decent sense when read with Aaron as the one who chose, we don't really know that that is true, and the narrative in Exodus is clear that it is God who chose Aaron.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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