Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On 9/30/04 3:06 PM, "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org> wrote:

> One ambiguity which I remember, and which is much discussed by
> commentators, is at 2 Kings 6:33. It can be more-or-less resolved if you
> realise (as the author of the Word commentary did not) that the chapter
> break after this is secondary and unfortunate. This makes almost
> impossible the view that the last part of 6:33 is the words of Elisha.

Peter,

But why isn't it considered the voice of the messenger? Seems like the
obvious choice from the syntax. The problem arises because the words are not
appropriate except in the mouth of the King? The messenger seems to have
arrived before Elisha's command to bar the door was implemented. That is how
I would read (wdnw mdbr (mM at the beginning of 6:33.

In 7:2 King's Chief of Staff is speaking and and the king is there with him
(7:17) but I don't see how we can find the king speaking in 6:33 where the
normal pattern of anaphora would put the words in the mouth of hml)K  the
messenger since he is the most recently active agent in the previous clause.

2kg 6:33 (wdnw mdbr (mM whnh hml)K yrd )lyw wy)mr

Textual emendation, reading hmlk for hml)k, changes everything. Then we have
the King doing the talking. So this isn't really a problem of ambiguous
anaphora, is it? It is a question with reading or removing aleph from hml)k.

thanks,
Clay Bartholomew