Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Liz,

You ask a good question.

> These are very interesting but bewildering.
> What sense is it that a rich man would
> have the same sort of grave as a criminal?
> I thought criminals were buried away from
> everyone else.

HH: Some interpreters suggest that wickedness and richness are often 
associated together, such as in the Prophets. But others object that 
when it comes to burials, being with the rich implies a good burial. 
So they take the verse to describe a two-stage assignment. It was 
intended that the person be buried with the wicked, but when he 
actually died he was put with the rich. "In his death" comes to have 
a sequential force. The reason would then be given in the following 
clause. He was assigned with the rich in his death because he had not 
done violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard