Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

In Gen. 13:15 AD OLAM is 'forever', namely, with no time limit set  
––– with no statute of limitation. The fact that someone builds  
a house, a shed, a driveway, a fence, or whatnot, on your land is  
another issue; it happens everyday everywhere.
Read again Jeremiah chapter 32, and recall verse 15:

כי כה אמר יהוה צבאות אלהי ישראל עוד  
יקנו בתים ושדות וכרמים בארץ הזאת

and tell me if he was right, or what.

Isaac Fried, Boston University


On Dec 12, 2010, at 1:03 PM, fred burlingame wrote:

> Hello Isaac:
>
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> You could be right, since I am but the consumer 1,000 years  
> removed, rather than the creator, of the masoretic text.
>
> But ... how do you read עד עולם in genesis 13:15; and in the  
> context of 2 chronicles 36:17? "forever?" "eternally?" And if so,  
> how do you define "forever" and "eternally" in terms of length of  
> time?
>
> Or perhaps you understand עד עולם in this particular context,  
> in yet a third and different manner?
>
> I look forward to hearing from you, on your precise meaning of this  
> phrase in this verse?
>
> I note in closing that surely someone else's house stands on that  
> land today at this very moment.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Sun, Dec 12, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> I am sorry to have to say this, but this talk of a "hidden" period  
> of time is in my opinion a symptom of a basic misunderstanding of  
> the workings and nature of the Hebrew language. The rest is theology.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University