Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear Jim,

You are right that I have followed the 
traditional interpretation in my translation of 
the expression in question. I have read your 
arguments, and I am not convinced that you are 
right. But we should not be too quick to exclude 
alternative interpretations. I have never made an 
in-depth study of the issue, so I do not have the 
right background to evaluate it. But thank you 
for bringing the issue to our attention.


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



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>
> Genesis 41: 1:  "Two Years of Days"
>
> Although not related to Rolf Furuli's discussion 
> of Hebrew verbs, I would nevertheless like to 
> challenge Rolf's traditional interpretation of 
> "And it happened at the end of two years of 
> days" at Genesis 41: 1 as meaning "At the end of 
> two full years".
>
> The only other expression of time like this, 
> using "days"/YMYM, is at Genesis 29: 14, where 
> Jacob works for Laban "a month of days" before 
> becoming engaged to statuesque Rachel.  To 
> translate that as "a full month" would not make 
> sense.  Those days speed by for Jacob, who is 
> enamored of beautiful Rachel.  The word 
> days/YMYM is not being used to emphasize that, 
> subjectively, the time period seemed extremely 
> long.  Very few English translations of Genesis 
> 29: 14 say "a whole month" or "a full month", 
> because such a construction does not make sense 
> in that context.  So why assume that "two years 
> of days" at Genesis 41: 1 means "two full 
> years"?  It doesn't.
>
> In both cases, this is the first instance where 
> a period of years is being referenced in a 
> particular foreign land, with the first case 
> being northwest Mesopotamia (Harran), and the 
> second case being Egypt.  The Hebrew expression 
> "days"/YMYM is a verbal alert that the 7 years 
> that Jacob will soon promise to work for Laban 
> in Harran (Genesis 29: 17-18) are 7 Mesopotamian 
> years, that is, 7 regular, 12-month years.  Note 
> that the preceding reference to a period of 
> years (excluding people's ages) was Genesis 16: 
> 3:  "So Sarai, Abram's wife, took her maid, 
> Hagar the Egyptian -- after Abram had dwelt in 
> the land of [or, "at this piece of ground in"] 
> Canaan ten years -- and gave her to her husband 
> Abram as concubine."   Genesis 16: 3  Those were 
> ten years in Canaan, which had a New Year 
> celebration both in the spring and in the fall, 
> based on the equally important harvest of grain 
> and harvest of fruits.  But the 7 years that 
> Jacob promises to work for Laban are 
> Mesopotamian years, where northwest Mesopotamia 
> had only one New Year every 12 months, in the 
> spring, based on the all-important harvest of 
> grains.  Equally importantly, the preceding 
> reference to a person's age was at Genesis 26: 
> 34, which tells us that Esau married, unwisely, 
> two Hittite women at age 40 "years".  Esau had 
> lived in Canaan his whole life to that point, so 
> those "years" are logically referring to the 
> fact that Esau had witnessed 40 New Years in 
> Canaan:  20 spring New Years and 20 fall New 
> Years.  Esau did not wait until being well into 
> middle age (in the ancient world) at age 40 
> regular, 12-month years to make those unwise 
> marriages.  (In the ancient world, many men died 
> at about age 40 regular years, as life 
> expectancies were much shorter than today.)  No, 
> Esau was a young man, age 20 regular, 12-month 
> years, when Esau impetuously made those unwise 
> marriages to Hittite women.
>
> Likewise, the reference to a period of two years 
> concerning Pharaoh's dream at Genesis 41: 1 
> comes not long after we are told at Genesis 37: 
> 2:  "At seventeen years of age, Joseph tended 
> the flocks with his brothers, as a helper 
> ["lad"/nar/N(R] to the sons of his father's 
> wives Bilhah and Zilpah."  If Jacob's favorite 
> son Joseph were a grown man, age 17 regular, 
> 12-month years, there's no way that Joseph would 
> be a mere helper to his older half-brothers by 
> Jacob's minor wives, and there's no way that the 
> narrator would refer to beloved Joseph as a 
> grown man as "nar".  Rather, Genesis 37: 2 is 
> telling us that Joseph to that point had 
> witnessed 17 New Years in Canaan:  9 spring New 
> Years and 8 fall New Years.  Joseph is age 81Ž2 
> regular, 12-month years.  That is why Joseph is, 
> very realistically, a mere helper to his older 
> half-brothers by his father's minor wives at 
> that point, and why Joseph is very appropriately 
> described by the narrator as being a "nar".
>
> The reason for the expression "two years of 
> days" at Genesis 41: 1 is to clue us into the 
> fact that the narrator here is referring to two 
> Egyptian years.  Egypt had only one New Year 
> every 12 months, based on the annual flooding of 
> the Nile River in early summer.
>
> In comparing Genesis 29: 14 with Genesis 41: 1, 
> please note the following additional key factor. 
> In both cases, the Hebrew man as to whom that 
> peculiar phrase relates then soon talks to the 
> lead person in that locale (of Harran or Egypt), 
> not using a translator, and refers to a period 
> of 7 years (Genesis 29: 18;  41: 26).  (As a 
> descendant of Abraham's father, Laban would be 
> able to speak to Jacob in Jacob's native 
> language (pre-Hebrew or Hebrew), even if most of 
> the locals at Harran ordinarily spoke Hurrian or 
> Aramaic, etc.  So no translator is needed.  In 
> Egypt, Joseph has learned to speak flawless 
> Egyptian, so no translator is needed when Joseph 
> speaks to Pharaoh.)  In those situations, Jacob 
> and Joseph would be using the word "years" in 
> the sense that "years" were understood in 
> northwest Mesopotamia and Egypt:  12 month 
> years, since those foreign locales had, so 
> unlike Canaan, only one New Year every 12 months.
>
> Thus at Genesis 41: 1, the reference to "two 
> years of days" is not an assertion that this 
> amount of time was very long.  It does not mean 
> "two full years".  No way.  Rather, the 
> reference to "two years of days" at Genesis 41: 
> 1 means that we are dealing with Egyptian years, 
> that is, regular, 12-month years.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
>
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