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  • From: Gabe Eisenstein <gabe AT cascadeaccess.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] names and puns
  • Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:53:55 -0700

Dear Dave,

Sorry to attribute to you a global denial of punning names in Genesis.
Guess what set me off was this:

"Gen 48:22 isn't a pun on anything. It's a perfectly legitimate and common Hebrew word, and once again, it says Jacob took by force the piece of land he's describing, whereas the texts talking about Shechem say he bought land."

Puns connect different words, each of which is "perfectly legitimate" on its own. In this case the author was almost certainly aware of the linguistic similarity between the common word "shoulder" or "slope" and the name of the city (which I assume itself derived from the "shoulder" meaning), given the association between the "house of Joseph" and the early seat of Israelite authority.
If you are saying that the text has some different location in mind, which Jacob took by force, I find that very implausible. It seems much more likely that there are simply different traditions about Shechem.


Gabe Eisenstein






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