Biblical Hebrew Forum

[B Chan <bh-chan AT hotmail.com>]

Actually, I am not so convinced about that. The first clue is Hagar's very 
enthusiastic reponse to the message. Why would Hagar receive וְה֤וּא יִהְיֶה֙ 
פֶּ֣רֶא אָדָ֔ם with joy?
 
I think the message is that Ishmael will be a free-ranging creature, 
untrammelled by earthly authority, in contradistinction to Hagar's servitude. 
cf. the treatment in Job 39:5
 
The upshot is that the blessing formula is AT LEAST ambiguous, and PROBABLY 
positive to Hagar, for her to respond in the manner that she did. Therefore 
"what did the message communicate to her" is something that we should be 
getting at.
 
 
B. Chan
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces at lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces at 
lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Lewis Reich
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 9:24 PM
To: b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] gen 16:12


One reason to favor the traditional, adversarial, understanding of the phrase 
is the preceding phrase "pereh adam", which I think connotes a wild, 
uncivilized nature; an uncivilized man engaging in cooperative trade seems 
incongruous.

Lewis Reich