From: Deborah Millier <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com>
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] "their altars" or "his/its altars"?
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 18:21:42 -0800 (PST)
Reinier de Blois wrote:
> You could argue that the singular
> possessive pronoun refers back to
> the singular YOWSHEB "inhabitant"
> in verse 12, which functions as a
> collective: a singular form with a
> plural meaning. Therefore neither
> the singular nor the plural possessives
> are incorrect.
Yeah . . . Im not so much trying to establish what in
the text is correct (or not) as I am interested how
best to *understand* the text as is. When I read Exo
34:13 this last go around I simply *noticed* for the
first time the differences between the singular and
the plural possessives. (Tells you about my level of
Hebrew, huh?). Your comments provide me a possibility,
but then evoke the question: If the pronominal
suffixes all point to the same essential referent(s)
(i.e. the idolatrous inhabitants of the land), then
why would the writer have formally differentiated
):aS"RaYW from MiZB:XoTaM and MfC"BoTaM ?
It is possible, but unlikely to my mind that it was a
stylistic issue since the two preceding nouns were
feminine plural. So why ):aS"RaYW in the sentence
rather than a corresponding plural possessive
pronominal suffix? Were only exploring viable
options. However, Im not yet convinced that going up
to YoSB (vs 12; or down to vs 15) satisfactorily
explains things as they stand. :-) Any more thoughts?