Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 02/01/2007 21:47, K Randolph wrote:
> ...
> Actually there is. The first phrase is pretty straight forward that
> they sent it, i.e. that they did not bring it themselves. That reading
> is strengthened by the use of the hiphil of "to come" meaning that
> they caused it to come to their father. This could very well have been
> sent with one of their slaves, the syntax does not require that one of
> them bring it personally. Evidently none of them had the balls to come
> and lie to their father's face, and the text indicates that
> indirection. Genesis mentions that Jacob was very wealthy owning
> slaves as well as having 12 sons, and while the text does not mention
> a slave in this verse, the syntax implies it, or at least someone
> other than one of the remaining sons.
>
>   
There is actually a quite common idiom in the Hebrew Bible of using $LX 
with no object followed by another verb to indicate some kind of 
causative sense. See the article "Send!" by John Ellington in The Bible 
Translator vol.45 no.2 (1994) pp.228-238, online at 
http://rosetta.reltech.org/TBT/CD3/1994/02/TBT199402.html?num=&x=0&y=0&num1=228 
. Ellington does not list Genesis 37:32 as an example of this 
construction because "send" does have an object, but it is probably the 
same kind of construction with the object displaced. As such the point 
is that the action is done through an intermediary, in this case 
probably a servant. It seems to be only later, in verse 35, that Jacob's 
sons actually come to him. I suppose the sons' excuse was that they were 
busy pasturing sheep near Dothan in the north, while Jacob was some way 
off probably at Hebron in the south.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://speakertruth.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/