I was curious what a former student of mine would say, who is completing a dissertation on the Hebrew of Jeremiah, about Jer 38.9. So I asked him and I've pasted his reply:
"It's tempting simply to revocalize as we-yamot, which would give an elegant 'so he should/may die' (cf. the LXX and the Vulgate). However, the MT as is is acceptable and I take it kind of like I take somebody in Modern Hebrew saying הלכתי just as he/she is leaving or is about to leave (similar to a performative in the use of past for present), something like 'he's dead/dead-meat/as good as dead', in all of which English speakers use a sort of hyperbole according to which the death involved is depicted as a fait accompli in order to emphasize the certainty of the thing. Cf. the targum (the Peshitta has it in the present tense)." I would agree with this. Succinct and clear, even mentions the modern 'tense language' doing something similar. Incidently, the targum that he mentions says kevar mit 'already dead' and confirms or aligns with the hyperbolic tradition 'has died' that ends up in the MT. So if a person wants to work from the MT and to explain what the recorders of the MT were writing down, then this verse is an example of hyperbole. If a person wants to re-point, they can have a simpler, prosaic volitional reading וימת we-yamo't "so that [and] he might die". -- Randall Buth, PhD www.biblicallanguagecenter.com Biblical Language Center Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
