Surprising Syntax 

“And these wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are split open; and these clothes of ours and our sandals are worn out from the very long journey.”   Joshua 9:13 NASB

Very long journey – Have you ever considered that the syntax of a language might reflect the thinking of the speakers of that language?  As you probably know, the arrangement of the words, the order of nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. isn’t the same from one language to another.  When we translate, we often must rearrange the word order from the original language to the translated version in order to match the expected grammatical rules of the translated language.  As a rather trivial example, in English we say, “My car,” but in Italian the same meaning is communicated with a definite article, “la mia macchina,” literally “the my car.”  Of course, when we translate we leave out the definite article because in English it isn’t included.  The obvious example in Hebrew is the direct object identifier, et, which again is not translated (actually untranslatable).  So, we might ask, “What does syntax tell us about the thought patterns of the native speaker?”  And, perhaps more importantly, what does an oddity in the syntax tell us about a particular meaning or emphasis?  

That second question is what’s happening here, in this verse.  In English the verse reads “the very long road,” all proper English syntax.  However, in Hebrew it reads מֵרֹ֥ב הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ מְאֹֽד, literally, “very road long.”  You will say, “Yes, but it still makes sense.  What’s the problem?”  The problem is that in almost all cases involving a “noun adverb adjective” combination the Hebrew pattern is “noun adjective adverb” (like “road long very”) but here it is “adjective noun adverb” (literally “long road very”).  This change also occurs in Genesis 47:13 where instead of “severe very famine” we find “severe famine very.”  Here’s the breakdown:

מֵרֹ֥ב הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ מְאֹֽד “long”   2099c רֹב (rōb) multitude, abundance.^[1] + 453a דֶּרֶך (derek) way, road.^[2]  +  1134aמְאֹד (mĕʾōd) exceedingly, much, force, abundance.^[3]

Why this change?  Is it just accidental?  Is it just another patter of adverb-adjective-noun arrangement?  Or is there something special about this oddity?  

The text tells us that the Gibeonites are speaking.  The irregular syntax jars the listener, perhaps just enough to pay extra attention to the thought, especially when the same claim is made in verse 9 with the typical syntaxial arrangement (“country far very”).  So, it’s not an accident.  Why the change?  Could it be that the Gibeonites are deliberately emphasizing the great distance between their present location and their origin?  One of the concerns expressed by the ish Israel is that these people might be living among us.  The oddity in the syntax underscores the distance—a great distance—between their supposed habitation and Israel’s apparent occupation.  The net: we are no threat to you at all.

Subtle syntactical changes lead us to interesting interpretations, found only in the Hebrew text.  Another case where the translation unintentionally leaves out something we might like to know.

Topical Index: very, mĕʾōd, syntax, Joshua 9:13