Words for the times: Rules for Refugees. Exodus 22:20-23 (BHS) / Ex 22:21-14 (NRSV)

וְגֵ֥ר לֹא־תוֹנֶ֖ה וְלֹ֣א תִלְחָצֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ  מִצְרָֽיִם׃

 

כָּל־אַלְמָנָ֥ה וְיָת֖וֹם לֹ֥א תְעַנּֽוּן׃

 

אִם־עַנֵּ֥ה תְעַנֶּ֖ה אֹת֑וֹ כִּ֣י אִם־צָעֹ֤ק יִצְעַק֙ אֵלַ֔י שָׁמֹ֥עַ אֶשְׁמַ֖ע צַעֲקָתֽוֹ׃

 וְחָרָ֣ה אַפִּ֔י וְהָרַגְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם בֶּחָ֑רֶב וְהָי֤וּ נְשֵׁיכֶם֙ אַלְמָנ֔וֹת וּבְנֵיכֶ֖ם יְתֹמִֽים׃

And as for the "ger": you shall not oppress, you shall not torment him, because you were "ger" in the land of Egypt.

Any widow or orphan, you shall not humiliate.

If you DO humiliate them, when they cry out to me, I will surely heed their cry.

And my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword;  then your wives will be widows and your children orphans. (my translation)

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I double checked the definition of "ger", which is often translated as alien, or stranger, or resident alien.  Here is how HALOT defines it:

גֶר is a man who (alone or with his family) leaves village and tribe because of war 2S 43 Is 164 , famine Ru 11 , epidemic, blood guilt etc. and seeks shelter and residence at another place, where his right of landed property, marriage and taking part in jurisdiction, cult and war has been curtailed... 

I think the word we are looking for is "refugee".

New York, family stuff, and Genesis 47

I haven't posted for a while.  I took a brief interlude in New York with my eldest child, wandering through the Cloisters museum, the Strand bookstore and the Palm Court in the Plaza Hotel.  We were in town mostly to catch The Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at the Walter Kerr Theatre - an absolute gem of a musical, based on the same story as the classic movie Kind Hearts and Coronets.  Like Alec Guinness in the movie, Jefferson Mays plays 8 different characters in the play.  Such fun!!

The Strand bookstore was my daughter's choice, but we both lucked out there.  After lending out my copy of Rumer Godden's In this House of Brede more times than I can remember, and having replaced it twice, I found 2 copies of the original Viking Press hardback, one of them in pristine condition!!!  This was a major coup, as the new edition put out by Loyola Press was very poorly proofread, in my opinion.

The Cloisters Museum was a wonderful way to spend a cold and snowy morning.  This was my destination of choice, as I wanted to see the Merode Altarpiece (Annunciation from the workshop of Roger Campin, the Master of Flemalle).

I was able to spend a lot of time peering quite closely at the triptych, for which I am so grateful!  What a gift!  The Cloisters houses a great collection of medieval religious art and is also the home of a number of unicorn tapestries.

So with all this and travel (don't ask) I get home and my mother is hospitalized.  So I try to spend some of every day with her and my dad and Hebrew gets left by the wayside.  AND I get a cold!!  Airplane germs?  Hospital germs?  I don't know, but I'm quarantining myself for a few days and so I had some time to finally finish Genesis 47.

Egypt buckles under the famine, but Joseph buys up everyone's land and in fact everyone!  All Egypt is owned by Pharaoh, and Joseph doles out food in his name.  Israel and the clan settle in Goshen in Egypt and Jacob/Israel extracts a promise from Joseph to bury him among his ancestors when he dies.

This is a strange promise - a put your hand under my thigh kind of promise.  A strange custom, to be sure.

With Lent beginning this week, I am planning to spend a little more time with Hebrew - Hebrew Syntax!  I thought with a little discipline I might actually work my way through Williams' Hebrew Syntax.  Or maybe even Waltke and O'Connor's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax.  I'll try them both out and see which is more accessible for an "independent scholar".

A little Esther

I haven't been keeping up with my chapter-a-day of Genesis.  I sprained my ankle on Monday and being told by the doc to keep my ankle above the level of my heart as much as possible, I have spent a good part of this week slouched down on my couch with my foot propped up on the back of the couch.  Hard position to read from.  Or to knit from.  Or really to do anything but watch TV and get a sore neck from.

I have watched countless episodes of Love It or List It and Property Brothers.  I watched 3 adaptations of Pride and Prejudice:  Bride and Prejudice (the Bollywood version), Pride and Prejudice (with Colin Firth) and Pride & Prejudice (with Kiera Knightly).  I couldn't bear to complete the set with the 1985 BBC version. Compared with the more recent film adaptations it is rather like watching a reading of the book.  Too much talking, not enough doing. Don't even think of suggesting the Lawrence Olivier one.  Never.

I am now watching episodes of Inspector Lewis so that I can try to figure out his seminarian-manqué sergeant, James Hathaway (played brilliantly by Lawrence Fox).

The ankle is much improved and I can manage the car if I wear very tightly laced boots.  Yes, it was my driving foot.  But now we have had 30 or so centimetres of dry powder dumped on us and it makes for very unsteady walking.  So I jammed out on Hebrew Club and stayed home.  Again.

Which brings me to Esther.  Hebrew Club is reading the book of Esther so instead of doing my chapter of Genesis today I thought I would catch up on the doings of Mordecai and Esther in the court of King Ahashverosh.

I.  Love.  This.  Book.

Such a great read!  And the Late Hebrew is easier than I thought it would be and has some interesting quirks.  I like the simple repetitions of nouns to convey ideas like יוֺם וָיוֺם (yom vayom), "day and day" = "each day" or נַעֲרָה וְנָעֲרָה (na'arah vena'arah), "girl and girl" = "each girl."  There are lots of Persian loan words in Esther, reasonably enough, since it is about a Jewish young woman who is living the harem of King Ahashverosh (Ahasuerus) of Persia.

I found a terrific article all about the language in Esther - one of the ideas I picked up there was that Persian loan words might be used for snobbery -- like using French words in English conversation.  You know what I mean, chèrie, n'est ce pas?  The savoir-faire of the Hebrew authors of Esther is very evident.  Here's a link to Holmstedt and Screnock's paper: Whither Esther? A Linguistic Profile of the Book of Esther.

Au revoir!