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  • From: Van Parunak <van AT parunak.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] He-emarta & He-emircha
  • Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:16:23 -0400

HALOT derives these forms from the more common )MR I meaning "to say," but follows Smend and Vriezen in suggesting that the unusual Hifil form is a "covenant formula." I don't have access to the studies by Smend and Vriezen, but would observe that one important characteristic of the covenant under discussion (the one concluded at Sinai) is that neither contracting party dealt directly with the other. The people asked Moses to represent them to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to the people through Moses. Note, for example, Exod 19:7, 8; 20:19; 24:7. In this case, the Hifil construction can be read as active and transparent rather than frozen formalism: "you have caused [Moses] to declare the Lord to be your God ... the Lord has caused [Moses] to declare you to be his people."

This explanation might lie behind a formulaic explanation, as well. It might well be that most covenants were in fact negotiated "in the hand of a mediator" (Gal 3:19), which case it would be natural to speak of each party "causing to be declared" its assertions, rather than declaring them directly.

Van Parunak
www.cyber-chapel.org

Joel:

From yesterday?s Torah reading, in Deut. 26:17?18:

Rabbi S.R. Hirsch suggests instead that these are forms of the root ???,
that ??? ?? ?????? means ?You have caused it to be said about God that??.

What is the view of the list members?

HH: Here is an entry from Holladay's lexicon, giving this form and then:

Hiphil: cause to say, proclaim ( covenant formulation), {Deu.26:17}

So a literal translation could be: "The Lord you have proclaimed today to be for you for God."

Yours,
Harold Holmyard


?Joel
Without really getting into it, I think Rabbi Hirsch is in the main correct.

Karl W. Randolph.
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