Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Peter,

> > > > ... The )$R in both clauses is probably substituting for the 
> > > > people. That's what I'm used to seeing. Fairly literally it is : 
> > > > "For thus says the Lord God, 'See, I am giving you into the hand 
> > > > of those you hate, into the hand of those from whom your soul is 
> > > > alienated.'"
> > > Well, fairly literally, but more literally "For thus says the Lord 
> > > God, 'See, I am giving you into the hand which you hate, into the 
> > > hand from which your NEPE$ is alienated.'" Your "of those" is an 
> > > interpretative addition, although the plural MHM, which doesn't go 
> > > with the singular hand, suggests the plurality. (And as you see, I 
> > > don't like to gloss NEPE$ as "soul".)
> >
> >
> > HH: But your "more literal" translation did not include the 
> > plurality of MHM. If you include that plurality in the translation, 
> > you have to change the sense of )$R from "which" to "those." ...
>
>
> Or you say that this implies that the hands were in fact plural, as 
> they must in fact have been. Like colloquial English, Hebrew has no 
> problem using a plural pronoun with a referent which is 
> grammatically singular but logically plural. And if you don't like 
> to change "hand" to "hands" in a literal translation, the 
> implication is that literal translation is impossible. Well, that is 
> a position I hold anyway, but we discuss that on another list. Your 
> added "those" breaks the literalness at least as much as my 
> suggested change to the plural.

HH: I don't expect such a clash of number here as you suggest. I 
think it does not occur with hand, or is rare. You seem to be 
claiming that giving a plural idea to )$R is somehow not literal. But 
)$R is a relative pronoun and can represent either a singular or 
plural antecedent. if the referent is plural, it is fine and literal 
to use a plural idea in the translation of the relative pronoun.

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard