Biblical Hebrew Forum

[schmuel <schmuel AT nyc.rr.com>]

Hi folks,

   Greetings .. I would like to revisit a question about Deuteronomy 33:17.

Deuteronomy 33:17 (KJB)
His glory is like the firstling of his bullock,
and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: 
with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: 
and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, 
and they are the thousands of Manasseh.   

Similar issues last discussed a while back.
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/b-hebrew/2002-June/013294.html
With two good responses from Ben Crick who in the following verse mentioned 
that ..

"The horns of a unicorn"
QaR:NeY Re:'eM (horns plural; unicorn singular) 
could mean that Aurochs is intended in Deuteronomy 33:17.

Rhinoceros is my candidate for Re'em ... One notable horn; and one  
insignificant horn behind it 

And there is also a rich history of reports of apparently extinct one-horned 
candidates for re'em.

For those interested, the following books gives a lot of the history of the 
reports worldwide of such animals. (likely extinct, if the reports were 
true). There are a few other similar books.

www.herper.com/ebooks/library/biofort/AncientMyths.html
Un-Natural History, or Myths of Ancient Science - Edmund Goldsmid's (1886)

Now, I would like to see if this grammar can be examined a bit closer. 

Deuteronomy 33:17
His glory is like the firstling of his bullock,
and his horns are like the horns of unicorns (re'em)

For the purpose of this discussion, the identity of re'em is not the primary 
issue,
we can discuss the grammar whether it is a unicorn, rhinoceros, wild ox, or 
something else.

As indicated above, in the Hebrew horns is plural form with definite article,
unicorns is singular form, no article.

Historical hebraic understanding on this is mixed, 
David Kimchi (Radaq) is the one very important one, which likely was 
a factor in the historic Christian Bibles as well (Geneva, King James Bible, 
etc)

http://britam.org/proof3.html
Rabbi David Kimchi (Safer HaShorashim, RAEM): 
<<his horns are like the horns of unicorns (Deuteronomy 33:17).
It is intended to mean that his horns are like the horns of
(several) unicorns for the Raem has only one horn. >>

The main issue is the situation with the grammatical form being singular,
viewing it in the translation as a generic, or collective, potentially plural 
usage.

We can do similar in English (although it would be smoother with the definite 
article) ....

the colorful tails of (the) peacock inspire the art of the ages (including 
TV-CBS)
the flowing manes of (the) arabian horse are a joy to behold in the highlands 
and at the shows
the sharp noses of (the) bedington dog can save miners in 
    emergencies and roots out drug smuggler and foxes

Notice that in English the choice of form is interpretative, style, nuance, 
allowing for various possibilities of singular and plural forms to show the 
majesty of the anatomy and the collective nature of the animal group
(peacock, horse, dog), which can be written in plural or singular.

These are unusual constructions, where the anatomy subject is the focus, 
not the actual animal.

Do we have other examples in Biblical Hebrew of such an interesting 
combination
of singular and plural as in Deut 33:17?

And do you view the Kimchi understanding as comparable in strength and 
reasonableness (of course, many factors are involved in his viewpoint, which
rests on his understanding of the meaning of the word re'em) as the 
grammatically
simpler idea of multiple horns on one re'em.

Thanks for your assistance.

Shalom,
Steven Avery

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Messianic_Apologetic