Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Genesis 1:16 (The Tifha accent)

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Chris and Nel" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.Ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 1:16 (The Tifha accent)
  • Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 11:12:08 +0100

The last part of this verse namely: ...ET HaCoCHaViM...is accompanied by a tifha accent. It has been suggested by a pdf document that I found about accents (David Robinson and Elisabeth Levy 2002) that the above verse is in the most part mistranslated into English by saying that "God made the stars also". When it should in fact be translated to indicate that the writer was saying that "The smaller light to rule the night and the The stars to rule the night" implying that the purpose of the tifha is to read the clause: "rule the night" Twice!

I am not trying to be pedantic here, but since I am learning to get to grips with these accents I am more interested in appreciating the use of the tifha at this point.

Personally (before I understood the accents) I read this verse as to mean that God made the lesser light to rule the night 'Along with the stars also' to rule the night based on interpreting the 'ET' before HaCoCHaViM as 'With', and for the fact that it seems to be too much of an awkward afterthought to have it placed at the end of the sentence if it were to mean simply that: "Oh yes and God made the stars also"!

Your comments will as always be appreciated and I will reply,

Thankyou

Chris Watts
S. Ireland.




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page