Doug, The term 'hand' (יד) is not actually there in the Hebrew text. This is not a political statement (they wouldn't have had the right-left political spectrum we refer to today). Instead, it is a reference to the generic ancient belief that the right hand side was proper and 'right' (we even preserve this notion in our English term), while the left was improper, weak, or sinister. This notion of the 'sinister' is still preserved in some Latin-based languages like Italian, in which 'left' is 'la sinistra'.
GEORGE ATHAS Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia) www.moore.edu.au _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
