pere, carl, the word XCYR refers nowadays to hay, not to grass. if this is also the biblical term, it does suggest that hay was used to cover the roofs. anyway, the imagery used is of a dry material that catches fire. in fact, וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶן, קִצְרֵי-יָד--חַתּוּ, וַיֵּבֹשׁוּ refers specifically to "being (figuratively) dry". in general i find very strange the translations i find such as
כו וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶן, קִצְרֵי-יָד--חַתּוּ, וַיֵּבֹשׁוּ; הָיוּ עֵשֶׂב שָׂדֶה, וִירַק דֶּשֶׁא, חֲצִיר גַּגּוֹת, וּשְׁדֵפָה לִפְנֵי קָמָה. 26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it is grown up. nir cohen >>> De: K Randolph <[email protected]> Para: B-Hebrew <[email protected]> Data: Mon, 25 Feb 2013 15:36:49 -0800 Assunto: [b-hebrew] grassy roof Dear All: This is just a little curiosity—what evidence from archaeology is there to suggest that ancient Israel houses were built grass growing on the roofs? I’m familiar with such construction from Scandinavian history, particularly Norwegian, but was the same practice done in ancient Judea? Linguistic reason for the question comes from 2 Kings 19:26, Isaiah 37:27 and Psalm 129:6 where mention is made of the grass of the roofs. From other contexts, this is not short grass, but the type found in pastures where cattle graze. Another possibility that these verses refer to thatch roofs, but the contexts seems to say that these are living roofs with green grass. A very different picture of houses than what I had pictured over the years. Karl W. Randolph, _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
