Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

George:

But you are reading into the text what is not there.

If the men of Gath were born in Gath, there’d be no need to mention that they 
were “born in the land” as that would be redundant. That it is mentioned ...

Add to that that referrences to “the land” in Tanakh was not restricted to 
Israel or Judea ...

As Yigal mentioned, the Egyptians most likely would not allow Semitic tribes 
to battle it out in Egypt, so is that why there is no mention of revenge?

There is nothing in the text that indicates that this particular incident 
occured outside of Egypt. Even if you could prove that the men of Gath were 
born in Gath (see above) what is to prevent them from coming to Egypt to do 
their dastardly deed?

The text raises more questions than it answers. The only evidence for your 
reading are the phrases “in the land” and “men of Gath”, neither of which say 
where the event occured.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>

> On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 19:30:03 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> writes:
> > George:
> > 
> > The general term )RC did not refer specifically to the land of 
> > Canaan, rather to any land. For example, Genesis 41:30, 31, 34 uses 
> > )RC which, in context, refers to Egypt and not Canaan.
> > 
> > Where a specific, named land was meant, we find )RC followed by the 
> > name of the country unless the context otherwise indicates the 
> > land’s identity. I don’t know when )RC when unnamed started to refer 
> > specifically to the land of Israel or of Judea, but as far as I can 
> > tell, that practice started after Tanakh was completed. As I 
> > mentioned in an earlier message, the phrase B)RC WBMDBR on the 
> > “Josiah Stone” was one of the signs that the stone is a fake.
> > 
> > Taken by itself, 1 Chronicles 7:20–24 gives no indication where the 
> > event occured. But taking the total context that includes Genesis 
> > and Exodus, the events most likely occured in Egypt and the phrase 
> > )N$Y GT HNWLDYM B)RC refers to Egyptian born sons of immigrants from 
> > Gath.
> > 
> > Karl W. Randolph.
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> 
> Karl,
> 
> Sorry, but that just isn't very convincing.  Since it is the men of Gath
> "who were born in the land", it would seem clear to me that the land is
> the land where Gath is located, viz. Israel.  It seems to me that the
> attempt to place it in Egypt rests upon nothing more or less than a
> desire to make it agree with the schema of the Exodus-Conquest narrative
> whether it actually agrees with it or not.  There was a humorist (before
> my time) named Will Rogers who used to do rope tricks while giving news
> and political commentary.  One of his lines was "All I know is what I
> read in the newspapers."  Well, all I know is what I read in the text.
> 
> george
> gfsomsel

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