Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Jim,

I think you'd better look into the pursuit of textual criticism.

The English translators have not arbitrarily translated )BL as "stone" rather 
than "meadow". There is text critical support for this reading. The Greek 
translators of this passage seem to have read a text that had )BN ('stone, 
rock') rather than )BL ('meadow, field') as in the MT. There is further 
support for this reading from the Targums and even some Latin manuscripts.

Please get yourself a BHS and check the text critical data so that you're not 
building a linguistic theory and alternative geography on air. This is 
standard methodology in biblical studies. You'd do well to follow it.

So, over to you now to spin this one your way yet again...



Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au