Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:  
 
You wrote:  “Why do you add what is not in the text, in this case 
“exhausted”? From the text of Genesis, Jacob was a careful shepherd whose 
flocks were healthy, not exhausted. And in order to keep them healthy, he 
refused to push them.”
 
Not only is it logical and inevitable that the flock would be exhausted, 
after Jacob had pushed the flock quickly all the long way from the upper 
Euphrates River to Gilead, but the text explicitly says that:
 
“My lord [Esau] knows that…the nursing flocks and herds are a care to me. If 
they are driven hard for one day, all the flocks will die.”  Genesis 33: 13
                          
Perhaps Jacob is exaggerating somewhat here, but it’s certainly true that the 
flock was “exhausted” at this point and time.  The text makes absolutely 
clear that Esau can see for himself that Jacob’s flock is exhausted.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois





-----Original Message-----
From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wed, May 19, 2010 5:04 pm
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Seir


Jim:
On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 2:36 PM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:
>  Karl:



 So there’s no way that Jacob would tell Esau that Esau should go on ahead, 
and 
hat Jacob would see Esau a little later south of the Dead Sea.  No, Jacob’s 
eference to Seir must be to historical Seir/Shar/Jazer, in southern Gilead.


ou are reading into the text what is not there, namely motives, then coming
o a conclusion based on your mind reading.

   Esau and everyone else know that Jacob is headed for Canaan, and would 
never 
ake his huge, exhausted flock


hy do you add what is not in the text, in this case “exhausted”? From the
ext of Genesis, Jacob was a careful shepherd whose flocks were healthy, not
xhausted. And in order to keep them healthy, he refused to push them.

  through the entire Transjordan to a locale south of the Dead Sea before 
ntering beloved Canaan.


 think the evidence is that Jacob was already in Canaan when he met Esau.

   That’s one logical route for Jacob to take, so it was a reasonable story 
for 
acob to tell Esau.


hat you or I think may be ‘reasonable’ may be completely different than
hat Jacob almost four millennia ago considered reasonable. Therefore we
eed to see what he actually said and did, and not insert our own reasoning
o lead ourselves astray.
>

 Jim Stinehart

 Evanston, Illinois


arl W. Randolph.
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