Reading What Isn’t There

And the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people will be stronger than the other; and the older will serve the younger.”  Genesis 25:23 NASB

Nations – Do you remember the remarks about messy Hebrew?  Do you recall that translating the second part of this verse depends on syntax, not vocabulary?  It can say, “and the older will serve the younger,” or “and the younger will serve the older.”  You decide.  The interpretation requires reader involvement.

But that’s not the only strange thing about this verse.  Here is the verse in Hebrew:

אמֶר יְהֹוָה לָהּ שְנֵי גֹייִם גוֹיִם בְּבִטְנֵךְ וּשְנֵי לְאֻמִּים מִמֵּעַיִךְ יִפָּרֵדוּ וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץוְרַב 

I have indicated two words in red.  Only one of these words shows up in the text: גֹייִם.  Why is the second Hebrew word included?  Because even though the word is written as גֹייִם, it is read as גוֹיִם.  In other words, when you read this text aloud, you read something that is not written.  How do you know that you should do that?  Because you are taught to read the text one way even though it is written another.  You can only learn to read Hebrew in community.  Oh, you can read the written text without the instructions about this second spelling of gôyim, but you cannot learn to read the text as the orthodox community reads it unless you are taught.  And this isn’t the only instance of this unusual pattern.

Now, of course, the question is: “Why?”  Why is there a written version and an oral version?  What’s the difference?

First, there is a slight difference in the sound.  The written text sounds like goi-yim while the spoken text sounds like go-yim.  So we have:

Va-Yo-Mer   A-Do-Nai   La   She-Nei  [Goi-Yim   Go-Yim]   Be-Vit-Nekh   U-She-Nei 

Second, the first word, the one written, means “powers,” while the second means “nations, peoples.”  So the actual text is written “two powers,” but it is read “two nations.”  The oral version retains the context of the greater story.  The written version does not.  The meaning of God’s reply isn’t clear at all if it is read as written.  What does “two powers” really mean?  But if it is read with the second spelling, goi-yim, then the meaning becomes clear.  Two nations, two peoples.  All of this over the slightest change in a single consonant that acts like a vowel.  Why?

Let me offer a suggestion.  It’s only a suggestion.  It doesn’t fit other instances of this pattern but it makes some sense here.  This statement from God to Rebekah comes after she seeks an answer to the struggle in her womb.[1]  What she does is similar in pattern to going to an oracle, a pagan site.  In fact, the text deliberately uses the name YHVH to dispel pagan religious action despite the similarity in behavior.  But God’s response is exactly oracular.  It’s poetry, a “message being conveyed in four pithy phrases.”[2]  And, we might add, four obscure phrases.  Like most oracles, clarity is not the objective.  So we, as readers, are required to add the missing clarity, and we do that by reading גֹייִם as גוֹיִם.

And now you know.  You don’t read this verse as it is written, even in translation.  You read it as it is read.  You interpret the oracle of God as you read aloud.

Welcome to Hebrew.

Topical Index:  go-yim, goi-yim, nations, Genesis 25:23

[1] Nahum Sarna (JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis) points out that the verb for this struggle is unusual.  It means “to crush, to thrust at one another.”  It is foreboding.  Sarna, p. 179.

[2] Nahum Sarna, JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis, p. 179.