Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

This verse is obviously a problem and has been treated differently by
various groups

WaY.aK: B.:)aN:$"Y B"YTH_$eMe$ K.iY R:)W. B.a)a:RoWN 
WaY.aK: B.f(fM $iB:(iYM )iY$ Xa:MiY$iYM )eLeP )iY$ 
WaY.iT:)aB.:LW. Hf(fM KiY_HiK.fH YHWH B.(fM MaK.fH G:DoWLfH

The RSV renders

"And he slew some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked into
the ark of the LORD; he slew seventy men of them, and the people mourned
because the LORD had made a great slaughter among the people."

The NRSV follows the LXX here

[LXX -- b-greek transliteration]

KAI OUK HSMENISAN hOI hUIOI IEXONIOU EN TOIS ANDRASIN BAIQSAMUS, hOTI
EIDAN KIBWTON KURIOU, KAI EPATACEN EN AUTOIS hEBDOMHKONTA ANDRAS KAI
PENTHKONTA XILIADAS ANDRWN, KAI EPENQHSEN hO LAOS, hOTI EPATACEN KURIOS
EN TWi LAWi PLHGHN MEGALH SFODRA

"The decendants of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the people of
Beth-shemesh when they greated the ark of the LORD, and he killed seventy
men of them.  The people mourned because the LORD had made a great
slaughter among the people."

But the JPS Tanak renders

[The LORD] struck at the men of Beth-shemesh because they look at the Ark
of the LORD; He struck down seventy men among the people [and] fifty
thousand men.  The people mourned, for he had inflicted a great slaughter
upon the population.

QUESTION:

The problem phrase seems to be the second and third lines of the
transliterated Hebrew text above.  The RSV solves the problem by omitting
the "fifty thousand men" and the NRSV by using a different text at that
point.  Only the JPS Tanak tries to deal with it and does so by combining
the numbers for a total of 50,070.  Is there a possibility that what we
have here is a construct relation which might be rendered

"and he killed seventy men of fifty thousand men" ?? 

george
gfsomsel
>From wattswestmaas AT eircom.net  Tue Jun 29 14:31:48 2004
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Subject: [b-hebrew] proverbs 8:30  especially for Harold.
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Dear MR. Harold

Thankyou for your helpful comment!!!

 I am not utterly unaware of this being a noun I did not need a lexicon to
see that.  Also it is inf. construct.  A noun derived directly from the verb
and in this sense can ALSO be translated as a VERBAL NOUN which throws up
other perspectives on how the writer was perceiving his INTENDED NUANCE.

My question was quite clear in that I was simply asking for peoples' ideas
on how they would translate this section "eyeh etslo amon".  Amon can be
architect, craftsman, carpenter, OR if the nuance was VERBAL which is for me
obvious then one can NOT translate it as a NOUN but in the sense of movement
ie crafting, skillfully supprting sustaining holding together. This idea
being supported by the context especially since the very subject of the
chapter is about WISDOM IN ACTION.

Chris.