>Ebed-melech is > concerned about the life of Jeremiah, and he > tells the king that the prophet "is on the point > of dying," or that "he will die" if the situation > continues. This is a critical situation in the > real world. It is no exaggeration (hyperebole),
The problem with this explanation is that it does not explain how the Hebrew communicated the subtlety of the translation 'be on the point of dying'. The MT, according to how the Masoretes understood it, was saying "and he is dead". That was an exaggeration in the circumstances. Also, to correct some earlier statements-- my friend did not refer to we-met (weqatal) but to we-yamo't "and (so that) he would die". What is of interest is to notice that the Masoretes could have vocalized the Hebrew wymt in two ways: weyamo't (plain prose) 'so that he would die' or wayya'mot 'and he died.' the second carries shock and impact, even after one realizes that it is an exaggeration. Not only did the MT chose the 'more difficult reading', but the targum reflects (kevar mit) the same rhetorical shock technique. (PS: I would appreciate more statistics on the Old Greek translators.) Randall Buth -- 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
