Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Kelton, "paramours" or "lovers" is what the first 
word implies according to translations or 
dictionaries I've seen. It is "concubine" in the 
feminine, but that's what concubines were, too: 
lovers or paramours.

> I think it is refering to their genitials based 
> on Ezekiel 23:20.  The only trouble is 
> translating PILAG:$"YHEM in Ez 23:20.  I think 
> that it is refering to the Egyptians 'genitals' 
> as opposed to their concubines, because that 
> does not make sense to me. But the pronoun is 
> masculine, so it is something belonging to the 
> men.  So I think the relative clause here is 
> futher describing PILAG:$"YHEM .  So Israel 
> lusted after their genitials, which was the 
> flesh (genitial size) of a donkey.
>
> So, tracing back to Ez 16:26, even though the 
> context is fornication, I think  mentioning the 
> size here points to the inticement of the 
> Egyptians.  Israel was so blinded by lust, that 
> she went after what she really desired, namely 
> what attracted her eyes.
>
> And maybe the reason why the NIV and other 
> translators, translate this as lust is because 
> of censorship.  I mean I'd have a hard time 
> publishing this one.
>
> --
> Kelton Graham
> KGRAHAM0938 AT comcast.net
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
>
> >  I am working through Ezekiel and I am not sure how to take the phrase
> >  גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] "those being great of flesh" in Ezekiel
> >  16:26. It's clear enough from the context that the speaker is
> >  referring to male genitalia, and the use of בשר [B&R] in Ezekiel
> >  23:20 confirms this. However, I am not sure whether to understand
> >  גדלי בשר [GDLY B&R] as a reference simply to large genitalia
> >  per se, or to _enlarged_ genitalia, that is, erections. NIV, NRSV,
> >  and JPS all take it in the latter sense, and translate it as
> >  "lustful." The LXX has a fairly literalistic translation,
> >  µεÎ"αλοσάρκος [MEGALOSARKOS], "big-fleshed." Neither the
> >  Hebrew word-pair nor the Greek word appear elsewhere in the Tanakh or
> >  LXX, so I don't have any comparative data there to work with. Does
> >  anyone know of any good evidence, e.g. uses of the Hebrew phrase or
> >  Greek word in extra-biblical sources, or similar phrases in cognate
> >  languages, that would help me solidify this translation, or is it an
> >  irreducible ambiguity? Anybody know why NIV, NRSV, JPS read this as
> >  they do?
> >  --
> >  R. Christopher Heard
> >  Assistant Professor of Religion
> >  Pepperdine University
> >  Malibu, California 90263-4352
> >  http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/cheard
> >  http://www.iTanakh.org
> >  http://www.semioticsandexegesis.info
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