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".

Home on the Range of Meaning. Exodus 22:4-5 (BHS); Exodus 22:5-6 (NRSV)

 When someone causes a field or vineyard to be grazed over, or lets livestock loose to graze in someone else’s field, restitution shall be made from the best in the owner’s field or vineyard. 

When fire breaks out and catches in thorns so that the stacked grain or the standing grain or the field is consumed, the one who started the fire shall make full restitution. 

The above verses (Exodus 22.4-5 in Hebrew BHS, 22.5-6 in NRSV) are fairly straight forward, except for one funny thing.  All the words I've underline in English are basically the same root in Hebrew.  I actually thought the first verse ought to be translated "When someone causes a field or vineyard to be burned or sets fire loose to burn someone else's field, etc., etc."  I'm still not quite sure why it isn't translated that way, but I admit, I was distracted from my research.

This is what distracted me:  the range of meanings for the simple Hebrew root בער

1.  burn
2.  graze, devastate, sweep away, remove (from the "graze" meaning, the noun, "livestock" no doubt is derived
3.  camel or cattle droppings.  These were used for fuel, so presumably the meaning is derived from #1?
4.  be stupid.  No doubt this meaning is derived from meaning #3.  How comforting!! In all civilizations, bovine (or camel!) droppings is the word for "stupid"!

The thing I don't get is "graze".  How does that become part of this group of words?  There are other Hebrew words for graze.  Do cattle (or camels) devastate a field by grazing? as if it were burnt?   I admit to ignorance on matters agricultural - maybe it makes more sense to someone else.

But the fact that BS can also mean Be Stupid just makes me giggle.

:)

Who pays for what? Exodus 21:19

So I know it's been ages, but I need to untangle this verse.

Exodus 21:19.

It continues from verse 18, which might read,

"And if men are fighting, and one strikes (smites!) the other with a rock or his fist and he does not die, but falls to his bed..."

So now we continue with 19a:

"then if he gets up and walks around outside upon a staff, then he (the smiter) is innocent of the smiting..."

And then we get to the weird part, 21:19b.  Five little Hebrew words:

רַ֥ק שִׁבְתּ֛וֹ יִתֵּ֖ן וְרַפֹּ֥א יְרַפֵּֽא׃ (rak shivto yitten verappo yerappe)

• rak means "only not, except"
• shivto is the noun form of the verb y-sh-v (sit, dwell) with a possessive pronoun tacked on the end.  So it could mean his throne, his sitting, his dwelling
• yitten is the 3ms of the verb "to give, put, set"
• And the last two words, verappo yerappe are different forms of the same verb, r-p-', which means "heal".  One is infinitive absolute.  The other is the same tense as yitten, and like yitten, also 3ms (3rd person masculine singular). Together they would ordinarily make it emphatic.  He healingly heals. Certainly heals. Something like that.

So together?  "...he is innocent of the smiting, except he is giving his seat/throne/sitting and certainly he is healing?"

This is not how the Bible translates this, and my lexicons stretch to try to accommodate the years of translators and interpreters.

Apparently when shivto appears with yitten, it does not mean "he gives his seat" (or "his seat gives" - hard to tell subject here) but rather that his sitting is given - it means enforced idleness.  The time off work that our poor smite-ee had to spend at home.

Unless... maybe it's the smiter who is still the subject of "to give"?  "He is innocent of the smiting, except (only not) the sitting he (the smiter) gave."  So the smiter IS liable for the victim's subsequent disability payments?  Aha!

And my old friend the infinitive absolute, which ought to give emphasis to the verb, "to heal" is here used in a different way.   HALOT says the absolute in this verse means "to pay the costs of healing".  WHAT?  Okay, maybe the absolute can mean "healing" but then ... he heals the healing?

Grrrr.....

Okay, I'll try again... "the smiter is innocent except the idleness he gave and the healing he heals".

Hmmm....

This is what the usual suspects have to say:

• then the assailant shall be free of liability, except to pay for the loss of time, and to arrange for full recovery.  (NRSV)
• then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. (KJV)
• the one who struck the blow will have no liability, other than to compensate the injured party for the enforced inactivity and to take care of the injured party until the cure is complete. (NJB)
• the assailant shall go unpunished, except that he must pay for his idleness and his cure. (JPS)

I have no trouble translating "give" as "pay".  That would be "he is innocent except he pays for the idleness".  But then my infinitive absolute of healing ought to be an absolute of certainty: "certainly he heals" and not payment.  I think HALOT might be wrong on this point.

Does the verse say that the smiter pays for the idleness AND the healing?  or, does he pay for the idleness and ALSO certainly heal?  Heal is a verb, after all... same tense as give/pay.

I think HALOT (The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament) is wrong.  I think the NRSV and the old King James are right.

Our smiter must pay for time lost, and he must completely (certainly) heal.  I suppose it is implied that he also pay for the healing, but I do not think it is directly stated.

What happened to the Fleshpots? Exodus 16.3

Ever hear that expression "the fleshpots of Europe?"  I always thought it referred to sin, as in sins of the flesh, as in, SEX!  I thought fleshpots were brothels or sleazy dancehalls or places to connect with a (probably paid) person for carnal purposes.  Carnal meaning sex.  Not meat (as in chile con carne).

Because I think "meat" is what those original fleshpots in Exodus referred to.

If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread... (Ex 16.3, NRSV)

In Hebrew it is two words, pots of the flesh,סִ֣יר הַבָּשָׂ֔ר (sir habbasar) and clearly followed by "ate our fill of bread".  It is saying that we sat by the meat pots, the stew pots and ate our share of bread.  It has nothing to do with sex, just that the Hebrew word for meat (basar) can also be translated, "flesh".

Still... if I passed an establishment with a flashing "FLESHPOT" sign, I'm not sure I would go in and order a beef stroganoff.  The word seems to have acquired a life of its own.

Hardening one's Heart

I'm up to Exodus 9 so far, and I'm interested in the various words used to harden Pharaoh's heart.  Now the heart was the centre of will and decision-making for the ancient Hebrews, so the hardening of the heart is making the brain hard -- block-headed (thank you Ehud for this image!), stubborn.  Not evil -- but stubborn, obstinate, pig-headed.

Sometimes Pharaoh's heart is or remains hard.  Sometimes God hardens it for him.  Sometimes Pharaoh hardens it himself.  I searched "harden* + heart" in Accordance (my Bible software) and came up with 19 hits in the book of Exodus (from 4:21 to 14:17).

The most common verb used is חזק hh-z-q, which has "be strong" as its basic meaning.  To be strong, grow strong, or harden. (12 times)

The next word (which appears both in verb and adjective form) is כבד kh-v-d, which means to be honoured.  It usually has a very positive meaning.  But it also means to be heavy or... to be dull! Pharaoh dulls his heart. (6 times)

The final word is קשׁה q-sh-h which is the most straightforward, and just means to be heavy or hard.  It only appears once.

It's a shame that English translations don't make any distinction here.  

The Rainbow in the story of Noah: Gen 9:14-16

14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,  15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.  16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”

The rainbow is not to remind US of the covenant, but to remind GOD not to destroy us!  I cannot tell you how many people seem to misread these verses.  The bow can comfort us that God has made a covenant, but bottom line, it is God's little Post-it Note to Himself in the sky:

Note to Self:  don't wipe out the Earth again.

Scolding God

Moses is pretty ticked at God at the end of Exodus 5.  This is the chapter where Pharaoh figures that his Hebrew slaves/forced labour don't have enough to do.  Since they want to go out in the wilderness and worship The Lord, they must have time on their hands.

So Pharaoh says that from now on, they must continue to meet their quota of bricks, but will not be given any straw with which to make them.  They will have to go and collect the stubble from the fields.

Needless to say, the Hebrews are not thrilled with this development.

Then Moses turned again to the LORD and said, “O LORD, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me?  23 Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.”  (NRSV Ex 5.22-23)

How's that for chutzpah?!  YOU have done nothing, to deliver YOUR people.  I like Moses.  He's not always too keen, but he manages to be obedient, after negotiating terms with the God of the Universe.

Couple of cool things -- some denominative verbs.  These are verbs that are formed from nouns.  And you get them both in a verse:    לקשׁשׁ קשׁ, lekoshesh kash, in v. 12, means "to gather stubble".  Kash means "stubble" and kashash means "to gather stubble".  But they give you both the words.

I ran into the same thing with grain or wheat in the Joseph story in Genesis with the words for "grain" (שׁבר) shever, and "to buy grain" (שׁבר) shavar.

One funny translation:  in verse Ex 5:17, Pharaoh tells the Israelite foremen, "You are lazy, lazy!"  The Hebrew word is נרפים, nirpim, the Nifal form of the verb, "to grow slack".  So the translation, "You are slackers, slackers!" would be completely legitimate.

:)