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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] "about" Josh. 7:4-5

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] "about" Josh. 7:4-5
  • Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 17:03:40 +0000

On 15/12/2004 16:37, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:

Dear Yigal,

According to Joshua 7:4, Joshua's first attempt at capturing Ai was made with ke$lo$et alapim i$, "about three thousand men". In the next verse, the men of Ai smote of them ke$lo$im ve$iSah i$, "about thirty six men".

The prefix kaph is usually translated "like", "about" and so on. However in this context, "about 36" does not make sense. 36 is an exact number.


HH: Maybe they knew that thirty-six men died, but they were not sure whether the men of Ai were directly responsible for all the deaths. Perhaps someone could have mistakenly run off a cliff or something.


A Google search for "about thirty six" (including quotation marks) shows that even modern English authors don't consider this kind of expression nonsensical. Consider the following:

From http://www.worldwar2history.info/Midway/war.html:

At the time the new code first appeared on June 1, 1939, the U.S. Navy's Washington code breaking staff had grown to about thirty-six hands.


From http://www.cybervillage.com/ocs/sports.htm:


This year about thirty-six boys and girls signed up.


--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/






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