Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Joseph:
Would not the literal translation be "his seed will become a filling of
nations"? And in that Ephraim's descendants were split between filling
nations on both sides of the Jordan, was that not fulfilled?

Karl W. Randolph.

On Jan 2, 2008 11:00 AM, Yosef Shalom <yossiyeshua AT yahoo.com> wrote:

> I have a question about translating a phrase here in this verse...
>  Gen 48:19  "And his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He
> also shall become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly his
> younger brother shall be greater than he is, and his seed shall become a
> multitude of nations."
>
> The phrase 'multitude of nations' here is in Hebrew 'melo haGoyim' and the
> verb is yhyeh.
>  Is the literal meaning here that Ephraim's seed would BE FILLED UP with a
> multitude of nations, or that his seed would become, ie, transformed into a
> multitude of nations.
>  I'm not quite sure about the word 'multitude' since that denotes simply a
> large number, where as 'melo' seems to gives us more, ie a large quantity
> within another entity, filling that up.
>
> Thanks,
> Joseph Simpson
> New York