From: "Chris and Nel" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net>
To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.Ibiblio.org>
Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 1:16 (The Tifha accent)
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 11:12:08 +0100
The last part of this verse namely: ...ET HaCoCHaViM...is accompanied by a
tifha accent. It has been suggested by a pdf document that I found about
accents (David Robinson and Elisabeth Levy 2002) that the above verse is in
the most part mistranslated into English by saying that "God made the stars
also". When it should in fact be translated to indicate that the writer was
saying that "The smaller light to rule the night and the The stars to rule
the night" implying that the purpose of the tifha is to read the clause:
"rule the night" Twice!
I am not trying to be pedantic here, but since I am learning to get to grips
with these accents I am more interested in appreciating the use of the tifha
at this point.
Personally (before I understood the accents) I read this verse as to mean
that God made the lesser light to rule the night 'Along with the stars also'
to rule the night based on interpreting the 'ET' before HaCoCHaViM as
'With', and for the fact that it seems to be too much of an awkward
afterthought to have it placed at the end of the sentence if it were to mean
simply that: "Oh yes and God made the stars also"!
Your comments will as always be appreciated and I will reply,
Thankyou
Chris Watts
S. Ireland.
[b-hebrew] Genesis 1:16 (The Tifha accent),
Chris and Nel, 09/03/2006