Biblical Hebrew Forum

["C. Stirling Bartholomew" <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

I cannot make any sense out of the syntax of this. Looks like dittography
with repeated demonstratives and substantives.

4Q201 f1iii:13
 )lyN )nwN rbny rb[n]y (s[r]t)   )n[wN wr]bnyh[N klhN nsbw lhN]

4Q202 f1ii:17
 [tmnyt (#ry lh ym)l t#(t (#r]y lh yhdy[)l (]#ryN [lh]   )lyN [)nw]N rbny
(#[rt)]  

The greek version of this reads:

outoi eisin arcai autow oi deka (R.H. Charles)

Nickelsburg (1Enoch 1, page 175 8a) has a discussion of this text but
doesn't really explain the syntax.

The issue at stake is: do we have 10 leaders (makes no sense here) or
leaders of 10's. Greek seems to support the nonsense reading but the DSS
fragments are difficult to unscramble.



greetings,
Clay Bartholomew