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  • From: "biblical hebrew" <jcr.bhebrew AT gmail.com>
  • To: "JimStinehart AT aol.com" <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 09:59:17 +0100

Hi Jim,

thanks for the lengthy reiteration of points you have already made in other
posts to other list members but I think you may have misunderstood what I
wanted. What I was requesting was a basic plain English, colloquial and
understandable rendition of Genesis 20:1 so that I could see what you are
proposing the translation should be without the confusion of punctuation
schemes that, to be frank, don't work in English.

Are you suggesting an understanding of the following kind?:

And Abraham went out from there down towards the south of the land. And he
set up camp at Gerar between Kadesh and Sur.

James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew Thesis 1 - Aleppo codex machine translation
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc Thesis 2 - language acquisition simulation



On 10/15/07, JimStinehart AT aol.com <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> James Christian Read
> Thanks for your nice post. I will use two posts of my own to answer your
> post.
> 1. You wrote: "Firstly, I would like to say that the concerns raised
> with
> regard to inseperable Hebrew constructions are valid concerns and any
> translation you offer should be in harmony with them. At this point I
> would like to
> request that you provide a colloquial English translation of what you are
> proposing, as the punctuation scheme you seem to be offering does
> nothing, in my
> mind, to illuminate new meaning to the verse but does everything to
> completely obscure any sensible meaning from it."
> I realize that the reading of Genesis 20: 1 that I am proposing stretches
> Hebrew grammar. In most all cases, and perhaps in all cases, when a new
> clause
> begins with a vav and a verb in Biblical Hebrew, that new clause will not
> be
> picking up words from the preceding clause. And in most all cases, and
> perhaps in all cases, a comma or break would not follow the Hebrew word
> for
> "between". But in my view, it is the author of the Patriarchal narratives
> who is
> straining the Hebrew grammar here. For example, any normal Hebrew
> analysis of
> the name "Reuben" would say that the name means "Behold -- a son!". And
> that
> analysis would also seem very natural for Jacob's firstborn son. But
> instead, the author of the Patriarchal narratives strains the Hebrew
> language and
> comes up with an alternative pun that is far, far from obvious: "And
> Leah
> conceived, and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben; for she said:
> 'Because the LORD [YHWH] hath looked upon my affliction; for now my
> husband will
> love me.'" Genesis 29: 32 That to me shows an author who is wedded to
> clever Hebrew wordplay (which is incessant throughout the Patriarchal
> narratives),
> and who often forces us to look for non-obvious constructions of the
> Hebrew
> wording.
> Here at Genesis 20: 1, under normal Hebrew grammar, one would think that
> the
> references to "land" and "south" have nothing to do whatsoever with the
> next
> clause, which clearly states that Abraham "settled between Qadesh and
> S(h)ur". I am straining the Hebrew syntax (as the Hebrew author strains
> to get his
> pun on "Rebuen" above) to get the references to "land" (or "region") and
> "south" in the preceding clause to modify the following clause, so that
> the
> hidden meaning is that Abraham settled in the southern region of the land
> between
> Qadesh and Sur. On that reading, Abraham went to Sur in southern
> Lebanon
> as the place where Sarah would bear Isaac. I admit that my reading of
> Genesis
> 20: 1 strains Hebrew grammar, but I see my reading as being the hidden,
> intentional meaning of the author. The reason why the author uses this
> roundabout wording is that the author wants us to first think that
> Abraham appears to
> be meekly following in Hagar's path from Genesis 16: 7, 14 in leaving
> Hebron.
> But instead, in light of the rest of chapters 20, 21 and 26 of Genesis,
> we
> eventually figure out that Abraham in fact went in the opposite direction
> than Hagar, with Abraham going north from Bethel/Ai to Sur ("Tyre") in
> southern
> Lebanon.
> The "strained" translation that I myself use, which makes my meaning
> clear,
> but which admittedly is not normal Hebrew grammar, is as follows:
> "And departed from there Abraham to the southern region of, and
> he settled
> between, Qadesh and Sur, and he sojourned in Gerar."
> 2. You wrote: "Finally, a polite request. Could you please separate
> your
> paragraphs with empty lines and in some way signify where your quotation
> of
> another list member ends (preferably also with a line space and some sort
> of
> indication of where your comments start)?"
> I try to do that, but for some unknown reason, my E-mails show up on the
> b-Hebrew list with no spacing between paragraphs.
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
>
>
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