Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Kenneth,

> The blessing in Deuteronomy 33:9 about Levi is usually is translated "...who says to his father and to 
> his mother I have not seen him...", but it does not say who "him" is. I think the quote does 
> not make sense, so I divided the word "who says" into two words that I think make more sense.
>  Do you think it could say "behold H) bitterness MR , to his father and to his 
> mother I have not seen it (bitterness), and his brother it (bitterness) does not 
> recognize, and his son it does not know because they have kept Your word..." ?
>  Or maybe "behold bitterness , to your father and to your mother I have not seen 
> it, and with his brother it is not acquainted (?), and with his son it is not known 
> because they have kept Your word..."
>  The word "behold" H) is also used in Genesis 47:23 and in Ezekiel 16:43. Could 
> "behold" be used to get attention for something that is not actually there, like 
> bitterness?

HH: Hebrew is a bit different tha English in the way that it handles 
pronoun reference and especially individualization. We would say, "I 
have not seen them," referring back to his father and mother, but the 
Hebrew looks at each of them individually and uses the masculine pronoun 
as the dominant gender. So the idea is the same as in the parallel line 
that he did not recognize his brothers. As others have said, the idea is 
probably like that of Ex 32:26-29:

Ex. 32:26 So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is 
for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
Ex. 32:27 ¶ Then he said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of 
Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth 
through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and 
friend and neighbor.’”
Ex. 32:28 The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three 
thousand of the people died.

HH: The Deuteronomy 33 text suggests that the Levites may not even have 
stopped if the offender was a father or mother.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard