This is actually an interesting point. Literally, Kenneth and Karl are correct: they served 12 years, they rebelled 13 years, on the 14 year Chedorlaomer arrived. Some (not all) of the rabbinic sources actually understand it that way, and Seder-Olam Rabbah (the post-Talmudic tract that calculates the chronology of the world, from which the Jewish calendar gets 5771 A.M. for the present year) actually counts this as 26 years. However logically, the sequence 12-13-14 seems more poetic than chronological, and logically it would make sense that they served 12 years, rebelled on the 13th, and he arrived on the 14th. Most of the translations that I have seen understand it that way, including such as the JPS and Alter. The Medieval Jewish commentators, like the Talmudic rabbis, are divided. Rashi, while not commenting on "13 year", says of "14 year" - "of their rebellion", seeming to agree with Seder Olam. Most of the others understand 13 as meaning "in the 13th year". Ibn-Ezra make s the following comment: "The meaning of 13 is in the 13th, like six days the Lord created (Ex. 20:11), and the author of Sedor Olam combined them, and his knowledge is wider than ours."
To me it seems, that which grammatically 13 may be correct, the context calls for 13th. The form can be explained in terms of literary form and genre. As we (that includes you, Karl) always say, context is everything. Yigal Levin _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
