Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

It looks to me like the simplest understanding is $iv(im  )i$
WaXami$im )elep )i$, "seventy men and 50,000 men", with the Wa ("and")
either missing or implied.

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:13 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] 1 Sam 6.19


> 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
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