May their encampment be laid waste, and in their tents may no one dwell. Psalm 69:26 [Hebrew Bible] Robert Alter No one dwell – Enough already! David’s already cursed them. He’s already wished them trapped, blind, and feeble. He’s elicited the storm God to scorch them with hot lava. Why keep the curses going? Ah,…
Leave off from man, who has breath in his nostrils. For of what account is he? Isaiah 2:22 Robert Alter Of what – כִּֽי־בַמֶּ֥ה ki-va me(h). Stringing together ki (for, but, thus, because, when, . . .), ba (in, at, with, away from, among, upon . . .), and me(h) (what, which, that, how), the…
I will not act in My blazing wrath, I will no more destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I do not desire to root out. Hosea 11:9 Robert Alter Not a man – Christian theology employs texts like this one to support its view…
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NASB To them – This is the first time…
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Genesis 2:4 NASB The account of – The King James renders this verse as “these are the generations of.” This represents the Hebrew tôlēdôt, but it misdirects us in English. The English word…
Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, in the…
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:23 ESV Woman/ man – Irregular plurals. That’s the description for the fact that neither ʾiššâ nor ʾiš have plural forms. The plurals are rather nashim and…
Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:23 ESV Woman/ man – We already know that something quite unusual, and spectacular, is happening in this verse. The first occurrence of both ʾiššâ (woman) and…
Now the man named his wife [a]Eve, because she was the mother of all the living Genesis 3:20 NASB Eve – But of course he did not name her “Eve.” I’m sorry, but the footnote in the NASB (“Genesis 3:20 I.e., living; or life”) is absolutely no help whatsoever. “Eve” is not her name. That word comes from the…
Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance. Psalm 78:25 NASB Bread of angels – If God provided you special nutrients directly from heaven’s kitchen, would you be satisfied? Asaph calls it לֶחֶם אַבִּירִים, translated here as “bread of angels.” But the translation is a later poetic interpolation. The words are literally…
