Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Gary:

My follow up questions ask if my original question was wrong? Am I using the
wrong concepts? Did I ask the wrong question?

On Wed, Jun 15, 2011 at 11:17 AM, Hedrick Gary <GaryH AT cjfm.org> wrote:

> Karl, as always, you bring up some insightful points—and I agree with you
> that some aspects of this are puzzling.
>
> But your original question was, Does the "consecrated one" die?
>
> In this instance, I think the answer is yes.
>
> Gary Hedrick
> San Antonio, Texas USA
>

The question is not whether or not death is involved, rather the status of
the one being put to death.

First of all, there is the definition of חרם. There is no English equivalent
for the word. “Consecration” is an artifact of context, not intrinsic to the
word itself. “Consecration” may be the wrong idea for this verse. There is
also the question of literary style, possibility that this is an aside
indicating that one who is marked out beyond what a person should be
(morally blemished) should surely be put to death. That we talk about a
different contextual use for חרם than in verse 28.

The reason I question this is that a quick reading of this verse seems to
indicate human sacrifice. But seeing as human sacrifice is roundly condemned
in the rest of Tanakh that that is not what is meant here. Yes, there is
execution, no question about that, but how does חרם fit into this and its
context?

Karl W. Randolph.

>
> On Jun 15, 2011, at 1:01 PM, K Randolph wrote:
>
> > Gary:
> >
> > I have been thinking of this question on and off for a few days…
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Hedrick Gary <GaryH AT cjfm.org> wrote:
> > In a word, yes.
> >
> > חרם is the key term here in 27:29, Karl, as it relates to your inquiry.
> >
> > Yes, it is. The question here, what exactly does it mean and what does it
> refer to?
> >
> > As a verb, I understand its meaning to be “to identify a person or object
> such that he is designated for special attention, e.g. consecrated to the
> Lord such that one can no longer make use of it for himself, sentenced to
> destruction or condemned to death ⇒ (physically) to (indicate by a) mark, as
> in to blemish, make imperfect”
> >
> > There are two recognized derivatives, “marked ⇒ designated object or
> person to be consecrated or condemned to destruction” and “marked such that
> blemished, disfigured, has imperfection”.
>
>
>