Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 17/02/2005 11:53, Yigal Levin wrote:

> 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.). ...

This may be true, this may be the only place in the Bible where 
hishtaxawe is used with both a king and YHWH as indirect object of the 
one verb. But this is a verb which is used rather commonly, and usually 
with L-, both for prostration before a monarch or other superior and for 
worship of YHWH and other gods. And the meaning is basically bodily 
prostration, symbolising submission but not necessarily religious 
worship. Mordecai's refusal in Esther 3:2 was not so much a religious 
matter as a refusal to accept the secular authority of Haman.

So it is not semantically odd to find it with the double object here. It 
may be pragmatically odd because bowing down to kings and worship of God 
normally took place separately, in different places. Perhaps the author 
of 1 Chronicles realised that before the temple was built there would 
not have been separate places.

By the way, not all English translations make any adjustments or 
additions to get round this issue. Indeed I can't find any that do, 
except for RSV mentioned by Japhet. KJV, NRSV, TEV, NIV and TNIV do not. 
Even the JPS Tanakh does not: "they bowed their heads low to the LORD 
and the king." So, Yigal, please can you clarify your

> Yes, all of the English translations that I've seen follow the Vulgate and 
> avoid the issue.

Do you mean that all the translations you have seen do what RSV does? If 
so, your reading is not very wide.

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



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