Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Martin is probably right, which makes my last post, while correct,
irrelevant. Here's what Japhet, in her OTL commentary (p. 512) has to say:
"After pronouncing the blessing, the people bowed low and prostated
themselves before both 'the Lord and the king'. Such a close conjunction of
God and king in an act of worship (avoided in the RSV by the addition of a
second verb) is not found elsewhere in the Bible, although the divine and
eathly rulers are mentioned together in several contexts (Prov. 24.21, 'Fear
the Lord and the king'; 1 Kings 21.10, 13, etc.). The question is: should
this allusion be construed as a reflection of actual contemporary custom in
the Second Temple, i.e. an obesiance to the king in addition to a
prostration 'before God'? If so then the demand spelled out in Ezra 6.10,
'that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven, and pray for
the life of the King and his sons', might be regarded as fully incoporated
and thoroughly established in the cult. Our texts, however, provide far too
meagre a basis for confident conclusions; cf. Mordecai's attitude to the
Persian officials: 'but Mordecai did not bow down' (Esther 3.2)."

Japhet's suggestion that this reflects a Second-Temple ritual of prostration
before the king seems strange since there was no king in Jerusalem during
the early Second-Temple period, and I'm quite sure that if the Hasmoneans or
Herod had recieved that kind of treatment, we would know about it !

Yigal


----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Shields" <enkidu AT bigpond.net.au>
To: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 1 Chron 29:30 question


> I think the verse you want is 1Chron 29:20 (the last two words).
>
> Martin Shields,
> Sydney, Australia.
>
> On 17/02/2005, at 3:07 PM, Yigal Levin wrote:
>
> > I assume the reference is to 26:30. A few verses later, it says
> > Lelohim ....
> > Lamelek. In both, the reference is to David's posting the Levites
> > throughout
> > Israel, to deal with matters "of God and of the King" - that is, civil
> > and
> > cultic. They are used as "judges and officers" There was no separation
> > of
> > church and state in the ancient world. It says nothing of David
> > "recieving
> > worship" of any kind.
> >
> > Yigal
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
> >
> >> Kelton:
> >>
> >> Where is this phrase found? I checked two different sources, and they
> > agreed with each other that LYHWH WLMLK, nor anything even similar to
> > that,
> > is found in 1 Chronicles 29:30.
> >>
> >> Karl W. Randolph.
> >>
>
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