Lucky 7
Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. Joshua 6:4 NASB
Seven – The numeral 7 in Hebrew is the word shiva. Like almost all Hebrew nouns, it has a gender form. The masculine form ends in the letter chet; the feminine form ends in ayin. In most cases, according to Hebrew grammar, the ending of the numeral matches the gender of the modified noun. So, if the noun (like trumpets or day or times) is masculine, the numeral is masculine; if the noun is feminine, the numeral is feminine. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.
But not here. In this verse there are some very odd “sevens.” The “trumpets of rams’ horns” is, of course, the Hebrew shofar, as a plural, shorfarot. Shofar is a feminine word. The word for “seven” is feminine, matching the singular form. But the plural noun has a masculine ending! Now look at the next occurrence of “seven,” (“seventh day”). The word for “day” is yom, a masculine term, but the term for “seventh” is in the feminine form. The next occurrence, “seven times,” is mixed up again. “Times” is paʿamim, the plural of paʿam, a masculine noun. But here the word for “seven” is feminine. It’s so confusing!
What are we to conclude? Was the author just grammatically challenged? Did he just make mistakes? Was he confused about singular and plural endings? Or was he “gender-fluid”?
Since the theological position is that these words were given by, or at least directed by, God, does this imply God needs grammar lessons? The likely response is “none of the above.” Frankly, it’s just messy. There doesn’t seem to be any real logic behind the text. It’s probably not scribal error (since there are four occurrences in the same verse), and it appears that the “mistake” is intentional. So, maybe there’s a deeper lesson here, as is usually the case when there are apparently deliberate grammatical “mistakes.” We’ve seen that before (for example, Joshua 1:8 in “their day,” a plural pronoun with a singular noun, and the quintessential example of Genesis 1:26). Maybe there is a deeper explanation here as well, and I’m just not smart enough to see it. Maybe you are. Let me know. In the meanwhile, I find some consolation in the fact that the biblical text is full of surprises. At the same time, I find it disheartening that none of these surprises are apparent in the translation simply because the translators take pains to correct the grammar along the way. Maybe we need to know the “mistakes” in order to really appreciate the text. What do you think?
Topical Index: seven, grammar, shofar, paʿam, gender, Joshua 6:4
I would like to preface my comments by saying that though my comments may seem a little confrontational, I believe God prefers honest questioning over blind folded fear.
Yes, the translators of the Biblical text took great pains not only to correct the grammar but also fill in any troublesome blanks that could leave it up to the reader to draw their own conclusions. Given the thousands of sects/denominations in Christendom, each vehemently claiming to have the only real, true, spirit filled interpretation of the text, the scribal intent to clarify and solidify the text has done anything but as history will attest. Judaism as well has not been immune from the effects of this phenomenon.
If anything, antiquity and inquiry has revealed that contrary to what one would be led to believe, most of the biblical text was not written in stone. Imperfect humans guided by their own motives, (honest or not so much), has resulted in “mistakes” that do challenge our orthodoxies and dogmas and that can be scary. However, pretending that they do not exist does not make them go away.
As for me, I am sort of in the camp that said mistakes are mistakes and they are what they are. I believe God inspired the text. He did not ask his secretary to take letter.