Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Noam Eitan <noameitan AT yahoo.com>]

The syntax of this verse has bothered me for a long time, and I thought I’ll 
use this thread to bring it up. Judges 4:21:

כא  וַתִּקַּח יָעֵל אֵשֶׁת-חֶבֶר אֶת-יְתַד הָאֹהֶל וַתָּשֶׂם אֶת-הַמַּקֶּבֶת 
בְּיָדָהּ, וַתָּבוֹא אֵלָיו בַּלָּאט, וַתִּתְקַע אֶת-הַיָּתֵד בְּרַקָּתוֹ, וַתִּצְנַח 
בָּאָרֶץ; וְהוּא-נִרְדָּם וַיָּעַף, וַיָּמֹת.

The problem is the last 3 verbs. The JPS 1917 Edition translates: “for he was 
in a deep sleep; so he swooned and died”. So נִרְדָּם is “he was in a deep 
sleep”, וַיָּעַף is “so he swooned”, and next he is kaput. It preserves a 
syntax we can live with at the expense of stretching the meaning of וַיָּעַף – 
does it really refer here to his state after being assaulted? 

The new JPS doesn’t think so. They translate “When he was fast asleep from 
exhaustion, she approached him etc. Thus he died.” There is no nice temporal 
sequence. נִרְדָּם וַיָּעַף is “fast asleep from exhaustion”, his condition 
before the assault, next comes וַיָּמֹת not reflecting the sequence of events 
that is reconstructed in their (new) translation. 

What I’m reading into the new JPS is that they think this sequence of 3 verbs 
is poetic. There is a long prelude in this verse that is entirely devoted to 
what the heroine of this epic is doing. Her victim, a man, is done and 
finished off in 3 verbs that constitute a climax and highlight his shameful 
demise – by a woman. She is active, he is shamefully passive. 

The song of Deborah does over several verses what the one above does in one. 
First it goes to great lengths to glorify Jael and her actions by detailing 
them repeatedly and presenting her as the active party. Then it proceeds to 
underline with exuberant schadenfreude her victim's demise by salvos of 
staccato fired verbs that reflect both the glee of the song teller or singer, 
as well as the passivity and the facility with which the victim, a man, is 
dispatched.

Could it be that verse 4:21 above reflects in its syntax the memory of 
another Song of Deborah that uses much the same poetic devices like the one 
we know today as Song of Deborah?  

Noam Eitan,
Brooklyn, NY