Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear Chris,

> Specifically, in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it is _not_ 
> ”˜ËÔ [H&+N] that  incites David to count the 
> people; it is merely ˜ËÔ [&+N] (no  definite 
> article). Now the lack of a definite article is 
> very  important here, it seems to me. For the 
> verse ought not be translated  "Satan opposed 
> [stood against] Israel, and incited David to 
> count  Israel," nor "The Adversary opposed ..." 
> since there is no definite  article, but rather, 
> "_An_ adversary opposed ...," with an indefinite 
> article. Now I wonder--I have not done the real 
> legwork on this yet,  so I'm thinking out 
> loud--whether the Chronicler thinks he is 
> referring to YHWH, or an entity other than YHWH, 
> by this word,  indefinite ˜ËÔ [&+N]. The Hebrew 
> word ˜ËÔ [&+N], of course, does  not 
> _inherently_ refer to some malignant 
> supernatural entity; see 1  Kings 11:23-25, 
> where the noun ˜ËÔ [&+N] refers to a purely 
> human  opponent, though one who, importantly, 
> was incited _by God_ to be  such. Moreover, 
> there is nothing semantically out of bounds 
> about God  being a ˜ËÔ [&+N], or at least we can 
> say that at least one writer  had no trouble 
> characterizing the ÓýÏÍÝȔ” [M)LK YHWH] "angel 
> of YHWH" as a ˜ËÔ [&+N] to someone (Numbers 
> 22:22). Clearly, the  Chronicler is altering his 
> Deuteronomistic source text. But is he 
> completely changing the referent, or just using 
> a subtle circumlocution?

HH: It seems to me that it would be a useless change unless it were to 
"Satan."