Subject: [b-hebrew] Deuteronomy 21:23 Who is cursed?
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:08:35 -0400
>> As Keil and Delitzsch interprets this...
Michael, I realize you were just writing a quick note, and I know I'm
probably being a bit of a jerk, so don't take this personally, but
its one of my pet peeves...
Keil and Delitzsch don't interpret anything. The commentary series is
called "Keil and Delitzsch," but each individual volume has a single
author and technically should be cited as either Keil or Delitzsch.
They did not collaborate so each man's ideas belong solely to
himself. I don't remember offhand who wrote the volumes on the
Pentateuch, but I think it was Keil. Just a quick note for all of you
b-Hebrew listers out there if you have to write an academic paper or
journal article.
The clue to a construct relationship is the "rat" ending on the end
of the QLL, as one of my old professors used to say. However, this
also tells us that it is a feminine noun, which doesn't agree
with תָּל֑וּי(TFLUY). I would guess that this may be
why Keil (let's say it is Keil) suggests that the referent is the
land since )DMH is the only feminine noun in proximity, though I may
be guessing wrong since I don't have the commentary in front of me.
If the construct phrase is describing the "hanged guy" it must be
using QLL in some generic sense, and not as an adjective modifying
TFLUY, ie "because a hanged man is an accursed-type-thing in relation
to God". This syntax is a bit difficult because the genitive
relationship is quite broad (it doesn't specify what the relationship
is to the head noun) and Biblical Hebrew (which, for Yitzhak, I am
merely using in the sense of any Hebrew that might possibly be
contained in the bible:)) does not mark the agent of a passive.
Interestingly, Targum Onkelos translates:
אֲרֵי עַל דְחָב קדם יוי אִצטְלִיב
)RY (L DXB QDM YHWH )C+LYB
"because on account of sin before the Lord he was hanged"
ie, the KY clause ends at elohim, and is not the reason why you
shouldn't leave a guy on a tree, but why he was hanged in the first
place (I remembered to write hanged instead of hung).