Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Dear Harold,
> 
> Dear Steve,
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to put together this 
> information. I think one thing it shows is that 
> although commentators may have come up with 
> different explanations for why the word was in 
> the plural, they showed a willingness to accept 
> the word and to realize that it applies to the 
> death of an individual. As you suggest, people 
> who work regularly with the Hebrew need not 
> stumble long over the appearance of a plural noun 
> with a singular meaning, since there are so many 
> of them. 

I think that so many  translators see the word bamot
here (translating altars and sepulchars, etc.) suggest
that the plural form doesn't make sense as "deaths."
To translate it as "death of an individual" you have to
emend the text. Now, I don't see any problem in that
myself, since it just means ditching one small (stray?) dot.
To keep the text as it is tho, requires you to read bamot
I would think, altars, temples, or something cultic, maybe
they had mausoleums. This is post Mausolus, after all.
Liz Fried
A2