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  • From: Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 12:3
  • Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:42:45 -0600

Blankinship, Benjamin wrote:
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 08:06:54 -0500
From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 12:3
To: Chris Gummer <chrisgumms AT hotmail.com>
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org, kgraham0938 AT comcast.net
Message-ID: <620F3D51-C7ED-4432-939F-46F65A7FB276 AT math.bu.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII;
delsp=yes; format=flowed

It is probably only a slip of pen, but in Genesis 12:3 ("And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee") there are many blessers but only one curser. Blessers has two successive suffixes (attached personal pronouns), as in English, but curser=curs +er has only one, as in English.

I never noticed that. The NLT and NIV missed it, too (NLT: "and curse
those who curse you" NIV: "whoever curses you I will curse"). Is there a
consensus as to significance of "him that curseth thee"? Or is it a
synecdoche for "all those who curse you"?

HH: "The one who curses you" simply individualizes the outcome. Hebrew often switches from plural to a distributive or individualizing singular where the idea is still general.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard





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