To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: 2 Sam 15:34 (was re: I am)
Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 06:52:14 -0700
> > Let me start with II Sam 15:34:
> > The question presented was: How would you translate 'ehyeh ebed abiyka
> > wa'aniy m"'az in this context?
> >
> > Well, checking the accents we find that "'ehyeh" is NOT in the same phrase
> > as "ebed abiyka" !!
> >
> > The correct parsing, according to Jewish mesorah is - `avdekha 'ani
> > hamelekh 'ehyeh. Which very simply means I WILL be you servant.
Obviously this raises a host of other problems, which is why I
usually don't pay all that much attention to the accentuation except
in poetry. I haven't checked it out in detail yet, but this looks like a
very awkward construction to me, which makes me suspect that
the accent is in the wrong place.