Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Steve, Anthony:

First of all, can we recognize the ruler described in this passage?
Unless I am mistaken, it was Antiochos Epiphanes. From history, what
do we know about him?

For one, he made only two campaigns against Egypt. The first he was
successful, to the point of appointing one of the Ptolomys as his
puppet in Egypt. However, after leaving Egypt, his puppet decided to
cut his strings so Antiochos returned, whereupon he met with Romans
who told him to get out, promptly. He did. He did not make a third
campaign.

Upon returning from Egypt, he took his fury out on Judea, which is why
we remember Hanukkah.

> From my understanding of Hebrew, I expected to see no more than two
campaigns against Egypt and that the second one did not meet with the
same success as did the first one. The reason for the failure was
forces from outside of Egypt.

As for the construct of the sentence, the negative is outside the
comparison, so that does not change the form of the comparison itself
nor its meaning. Whereas the positive sense indicates how the two are
the same, adding the negative merely says that they were not the same.
And the context defines the "they" as the two campaigns.

Karl W. Randolph.