Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Chris and Nel wrote:

> 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"!
>  

HH: The chapter is talking about creation, and before the stars do 
anything, they have to be created. That is the thrust of the verse. You 
could rewrite the verse:

And God made the two great lights -- the greater light to rule the day 
and the smaller light to rule the night -- and the stars.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard


> Your comments will as always be appreciated and I will reply,
>
> Thankyou
>
> Chris Watts
> S. Ireland. 
>
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