Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>]

At 11:15 AM 1/4/2005, you wrote:

> Plus, I am really looking for _syntactical_ help here. Note that NRSV and
> JPS generate _opposite_ questions from this sentence: "Can iron and bronze
> break iron?" NRSV vs. "Can iron break iron and bronze?" JPS. I need a
> "sentence diagram," but I can't quite figure what to put where.
>
> Chris

For Christmas I got all three volumes of  Jack Lundbom's commentary on 
Jeremiah in the Anchor Bible.  Here's how he renders 15:12--  "Can iron 
break iron from the north and bronze?"  He recommends that we disassociate 
"iron from the north" from "foe from the north".  Further, the phrase 
refers to Jeremiah himself (cf 1:18).  "The meaning is then: 'can iron-clad 
enemies break an even stronger iron and bronze Jeremiah?  Answer: of course 
not!"

This interpretation has a lot to commend it.

Jim


++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD

http://web.infoave.net/~jwest Biblical Studies Resources
http://biblical-studies.blogspot.com Biblical Theology Weblog