Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Doug,

The term 'hand' (יד) is not actually there in the Hebrew text. This is not a 
political statement (they wouldn't have had the right-left political spectrum 
we refer to today). Instead, it is a reference to the generic ancient belief 
that the right hand side was proper and 'right' (we even preserve this notion 
in our English term), while the left was improper, weak, or sinister. This 
notion of the 'sinister' is still preserved in some Latin-based languages 
like Italian, in which 'left' is 'la sinistra'.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au