Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Yigal:

On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il> wrote:

> 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. …
>


> 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
>
>
> The way I understand it is as follows:

• We know very little about the early bronze age, as very little written
materials have survived from that period. We may know Chedarloamar under a
different name from other, surviving texts.

• That the rebellion lasted so long can be explained that there may have
been several rebellions that occurred at the same time, and Chederloamar
took care of the closer, more important rebellions first, only in the 14th
year being confident that he had pacified the important areas enough to go
out to the fringes of his empire to put down a minor rebellion. Of course
this explanation is speculation, but plausible.

While the context gives the possibility of a 14 year event, there are enough
unknowns to allow for a 26 year event as indicated by the text.

Karl W. Randolph.