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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] 2Sam24:1 subjects

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  • From: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • To: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] 2Sam24:1 subjects
  • Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 17:42:45 +0300

On 8/10/05, Read, James C wrote:
>
> I was asked to find a good example of ambiguous agents. Exodus 4:24-26
> seems to do the job nicely:
>
> 24 Now it came about on the road at the lodging place that Jehovah got to
> meet him and kept looking for a way to put him to death. 25 Finally
> Zip·po´rah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and caused it to
> touch
> his feet and said: "It is because you are a bridegroom of blood to me." 26
> Consequently he let go of him. At that time she said: "A bridegroom of
> blood," because of the circumcision.
>
> v24 Who met who? Who tried to kill who?
> v25 Whose feet did the piece of skin touch? Who is the bridegroom of blood?
> v26 Who let go of who?
>
> None of the above questions can be answered unequivocally without extensive
> use of context and a
> touch of interpretation.
>

The problem is not just finding an ambiguous context. The issue is an
ambiguous context where the (real) agent isn't referenced at all. In the
prior
example you gave (Exodus 2:19-20), Reu'el and Moses ("an Egyptian
man") were both mentioned in the preceding verses (18-19). So the
ambiguity only involves two agents who are mentioned in the verses.
In the case above there isn't any real ambiguity in the agent, but even if
there is, I don't think there is any reason to bring in an agent not mentioned
in the prior verses. Not only is &+n not mentioned in the prior verses of
2 Sam 24:1, but 2 Sam 24:1 begins a new "paragraph". Furthermore, in
the whole book of Samuel, the word &+n seems to be only mentioned twice
and in a very specific phrase (hyh l-X l&+n). It has nothing to do with the
paragraph in question.

Yitzhak Sapir




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