Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<michaelabernat9001 AT sbcglobal.net>]

While I appreciate your answer, I am not all that certain that Elohim is in 
a construct relationship. Note the JPS translation, "for
he that is hanged is an affront to God." And the comment by Rashi  "It is an 
affront to the king, for man is fashioned in His image, and the Israelites 
are His children. This is compared to twin brothers who were identical to 
each other. One became king, and one was apprehended as a thief and hanged. 
Everyone who saw him exclaimed, 'The king has been hanged!' [The king issued 
a command, and he was brought down.]"

It looks to me like this is ambiguous and could be taken either way. 
Nevertheless, one reference commented that קִלְלַת is consistently 
understood as slighting or insulting someone.

As to the NWT, I think Yoda would have found this completely natural.
Sincerely,
Michael Abernathy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.anglia.ac.uk>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 12:11 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Deuteronomy 21:23 Who is cursed?


> MA:Deuteronomy 21:23
>
> כִּי־קִלְלַת אֱלֹהִים תָּלוּי
>
>
>
> Is God the object of scorn  because a criminal is hanged or the one who 
> curses the hanged criminal?
>
> JCR:There are several clues to decoding your question.
>
> 1) The clause begins with 'because'
> 2) Elohim is in a construct relationship
>
> Let's consider them one at a time.
>
> 1) The beginning of the clause indicates that we are
> looking at the reason for the preceeding clause, the
> why that the dead body should not be left to hang all
> night. Any translation must therefore be contextually
> in line with this simple observation.
>
> 2) Elohim here is in the construct relationship. He is
> not the subject nor the object of the clause, merely an
> adjective describing a quality of the accursed.
>
> In line with these two observations what do you feel
> about the NWT rendition?
>
> 'because something accursed of God is the one hung up'
>
> I'm sure this English could be smoothed out and made to
> better represent natural language but the essence of
> the clause seems to be adequately captured.
>
> James Christian Read
> BSc Computer Science
> thesis1: concept driven machine translation using the Aleppo codex
> thesis2: language acquisition simulation
> http://www.lamie.org/hebrew
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