Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>]

This is actually an interesting point. Literally, Kenneth and Karl are 
correct: they served 12 years, they rebelled 13 years, on the 14 year 
Chedorlaomer arrived. Some (not all) of the rabbinic sources actually 
understand it that way, and Seder-Olam Rabbah (the post-Talmudic tract that 
calculates the chronology of the world, from which the Jewish calendar gets 
5771 A.M. for the present year) actually counts this as 26 years. However 
logically, the sequence 12-13-14 seems more poetic than chronological, and 
logically it would make sense that they served 12 years, rebelled on the 
13th, and he arrived on the 14th. Most of the translations that I have seen 
understand it that way, including such as the JPS and Alter. The Medieval 
Jewish commentators, like the Talmudic rabbis, are divided. Rashi, while not 
commenting on "13 year", says of "14 year" - "of their rebellion", seeming to 
agree with Seder Olam. Most of the others understand 13 as meaning "in the 
13th year". Ibn-Ezra makes the following comment: "The meaning of 13 is in 
the 13th, like six days the Lord created (Ex. 20:11), and the author of Sedor 
Olam combined them, and his knowledge is wider than ours." 

To me it seems, that which grammatically 13 may be correct, the context calls 
for 13th. The form can be explained in terms of literary form and genre. As 
we (that includes you, Karl) always say, context is everything.

Yigal Levin