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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Pronoun )nky in Judg. 6:8
  • Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 08:03:30 -0500

Dear Clay,

> So lets ignore the position of the pronoun and ask the question why do we
see a pronoun at all? What is the function of the pronoun. I agree this has
> to do with issues other than syntax. "Focus" isn't a syntax issue.

HH: This is an interesting question and may be hard to resolve immediately from the context, but I think the function of the pronoun is contrast. One may need to go back to the first verse of the chapter and earlier to see how:

Judg. 6:1 ¶ Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.

HH: What exactly did it mean that the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord? It seems clear from the verbal pattern already established in the book from as early as 2:10:

Judg. 2:10 ¶ After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.
Judg. 2:11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.
Judg. 2:12 They forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They provoked the LORD to anger
Judg. 2:13 because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

HH: This caused the Lord to send enemies against them:

Judg. 2:14 In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

HH: This sets the repeated pattern for the following chapters:

Judg. 2:16 ¶ Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.
Judg. 2:17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD's commands.

Judg. 2:19 But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Judg. 3:5 ¶ The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Judg. 3:6 They took their daughters in marriage and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Judg. 3:7 ¶ The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.
Judg. 3:8 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years.
Judg. 3:9 But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, who saved them.

Judg. 3:12 ¶ Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.

Judg. 4:1 ¶ After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
Judg. 4:2 So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.

HH: The mention of Jabin in 4:2 introduces the narrative continuing through chapter 5, but the pattern returns with 6:1, so we can assume that the evil in 6:1 involved the worship of other gods. When the people cry out to the Lord for deliverance 6:6-7 and he sends them a prophet, I think He wants to remind them that it was He, and not some other god, who brought them out of Egypt: The words in 6:10 also support this idea:

Judg. 6:8 he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: It is I who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
Judg. 6:9 I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
Judg. 6:10 I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."

HH: I realize that there is no relative pronoun before "brought" in 6:8, but I added it in order to show in English what the force of the emphatic Hebrew pronoun )NKY might be. The Lord seems to be contrasting Himself with the gods of the Amorites, who never did anything for the Israelites.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard




And unfortunately, that puts it outside my area of real expertise. My
research rarely goes above the clause and/or clause-connector level. I can
spell "pragmatics," but that's about it :-)

--
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"No good. Hit on head." -Gronk
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