Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 11:45 PM, James Christian wrote:
> Yitzhak,
> your observations about world view are correct and we should analyze the
> poem in isolation to discover its true world view as you rightly asserted.
> What do you make of the world view as presented in verse 39?
> James Christian

Deut 32:39 reads back into verse 37 - Where is THEIR (Israel's) god?
... See now that
it is I. For the phrase )yn (mdy compare Gen 31:50.  Jacob and his
family, children,
and livestock is speaking to Laban.  He tells him, this is between you and me,
)yn )y$ (mnw.  It doesn't mean that in this standing, there is no man.  It 
also
doesn't refer to Jacob's wives or children or servants.  They just
don't figure into
the equation.   In the same way, )yn )lhym (mdy doesn't mean there is no other
god at all.  It means that in this specific standing -- the position
of a national god,
of responsibility for the nation -- there is no other god.  Y's
consort, or inferior gods,
if they exist, do not figure into this equation, just like they don't
figure in Laban's.
Y has the power to bring death and life, to crush and heal, and other gods are
powerless to counteract it because Israel is Y's inheritance and he has the
authority in his portion.  Who is Israel's god? It is I, only I have
the authority.

Yitzhak Sapir