21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 6:5-8

And now the cliffhanger.

ה וַיַּ֣רְא יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּ֥י רַבָּ֛ה רָעַ֥ת הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וְכָל־יֵ֨צֶר֙ מַחְשְׁבֹ֣ת לִבּ֔וֹ רַ֥ק רַ֖ע כָּל־הַיּֽוֹם:

ו וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם יְהֹוָ֔ה כִּֽי־עָשָׂ֥ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם בָּאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּ֖ב אֶל־לִבּֽוֹ:

ז וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה אֶמְחֶ֨ה אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֤ם אֲשֶׁר־בָּרָ֨אתִי֙ מֵעַל֙ פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֔ה מֵֽאָדָם֙ עַד־בְּהֵמָ֔ה עַד־רֶ֖מֶשׂ וְעַד־ע֣וֹף הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם כִּ֥י נִחַ֖מְתִּי כִּ֥י עֲשִׂיתִֽם:

ח וְנֹ֕חַ מָ֥צָא חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְהוָֹֽה:

The Lord must have seen that the evil of man was great on earth -- every spirit of the thoughts of his heart were only evil all the time --

For the Lord regretted that He had made man on earth; He kept consulting His heart.

The Lord said I will wipe man out that I created, from the face of the earth, man and domestic animal and even the creeping things and fliers in the sky; for I have regretted that I made them.

But the Lord favored Noach.

Now what are we going to do about this word nacham?

First, remember that Noach’s father said Noach would give respite from working the land, and he used the same root.

Second, nacham has to do with pity and compassion, and that goes with Gd grieving to His heart that what He created, which was good when He created it, has turned out so evil.

The problem is that there’s a dagesh in the nun.  This suggests a suppressed letter, but it’s not the assimilated nun that some peh nun verbs have.  The suppressed letter is probably the tav of a hitpael, and this leads directly to a Mishnah in Pirqey Avot saying how patiently Gd bore with these sinners until He finally had enough.  It parallels the hitpael later in the verse.  It also agrees with the use of hitpael in going back and forth like Chanokh “whom Gd took”.

But in verse 7 we have nichamti, the piel, and as I will show in more detail some lessons from now, piel is used when the same bad consequences are turning up time and again. This is Gd saying “this is the dictionary definition of stupidity, getting bad results from your actions and repeating those actions; it’s time for me to do something about people’s stupidity.”

He’s going to wipe people out, and this is the answer to the presumption of Lemekh I in saying “hey, Qain got 7 generations to be avenged, I’ll get 77 generations before anybody avenges me.” Lemekh I got one generation that we know of. It’s the son of Lemekh II whom Gd favors.

You all know that Noach survives what is coming. And that is the second reason why we are not descended from murderers. Anybody who tells you we are is trying to make you feel bad about yourself. That is psychological abuse and bullying. We now realize that bullying promotes everything from obesity through self-harm to suicide. Kick those bullies to the curb where they belong. 

This is the end of the first aliyah in Torah. There are 54. Use the Fact Checking Resources to find texts and audio for further reading. Or contact me about a copy of Narrating the Torah and we'll work something out.

I am not done. I am going to pull all this grammar together in an organized way instead of in bits and pieces the way I have done up to now.

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 5:32-6:4, lords and N'filim

This is the part you have been waiting for me to work over but, if you have been paying attention, you suspect that it won’t come out the way you thought.

לב וַֽיְהִי־נֹ֕חַ בֶּן־חֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֣וֹלֶד נֹ֔חַ אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת: 

ו  א וַֽיְהִי֙ כִּֽי־הֵחֵ֣ל הָֽאָדָ֔ם לָרֹ֖ב עַל־פְּנֵ֣י הָֽאֲדָמָ֑ה וּבָנ֖וֹת יֻלְּד֥וּ לָהֶֽם:

ב וַיִּרְא֤וּ בְנֵי־הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם כִּ֥י טֹבֹ֖ת הֵ֑נָּה וַיִּקְח֤וּ לָהֶם֙ נָשִׁ֔ים מִכֹּ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּחָֽרוּ:

ג וַיֹּ֣אמֶר יְהֹוָ֗ה לֹֽא־יָד֨וֹן רוּחִ֤י בָֽאָדָם֙ לְעֹלָ֔ם בְּשַׁגָּ֖ם ה֣וּא בָשָׂ֑ר וְהָי֣וּ יָמָ֔יו מֵאָ֥ה וְעֶשְׂרִ֖ים שָׁנָֽה:

ד הַנְּפִלִ֞ים הָי֣וּ בָאָ֘רֶץ֘ בַּיָּמִ֣ים הָהֵם֒ וְגַ֣ם אַֽחֲרֵי־כֵ֗ן אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָבֹ֜אוּ בְּנֵ֤י הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־בְּנ֣וֹת הָֽאָדָ֔ם וְיָֽלְד֖וּ לָהֶ֑ם הֵ֧מָּה הַגִּבֹּרִ֛ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר מֵֽעוֹלָ֖ם אַנְשֵׁ֥י הַשֵּֽׁם:

Noach must have been 500 years old; Noach sired Shem, Cham and Yefet.

It must have been the beginning of man increasing on the earth; that daughters were born to them.

The sons of lords looked at the daughters of men, because they were good; they took to them wives, of all whom they had chosen.

The Lord said My spirit won’t strive against man forever, in their erring, he is mortal; from now on his years will be 120.

The N’filim were on earth in those days -- and after that time -- when the sons of the lords went to the daughters of men, they bore to them -- those were the mightiest ever, famous men.

Here is why it reads differently from your father’s translation.

First, now you know about the va-y’hi…[narrative past] structure so you know that anything interrupting that is sort of a sidebar.

So the direct line goes from the va-y’hi clause to va-yiru, the narrative past that is the complement.

The yuldu of the daughters is our qual of the important consequences, which is that the b’ney elohim took brides from among them.

“Those among the lords” translates b’ney elohim.  Remember the b’ney brit of Avraham who joined him in following up the armies so as to get back Avraham’s nephew Lot. They were not biological sons of a covenant. They were partners in the covenant. Likewise b’ney ir means everybody who has a residence in a given city.

Second, these men were as mortal as Adam. I addressed that long ago. Torah never calls mortals “gods”, it calls them “lords”. Mosheh is told he will be a lord to Paro; Exodus 22:27 says “don’t curse a lord or a prince among your people.” Anybody who tells you b’ney elohim means sons of gods is committing a fallacy called sampling bias.

Verse 3 falls into two parts. The first part acknowledges human mortality; the second sets its limit at 120 years. What does that mean? Well, you know that the patriarchs lived longer than that (or you will when you read the rest of Torah). Let me suggest that the people whose lives are limited to 120 years are the ones who struggle against Gd, which the patriarchs did not, and hence they lived “to a good old age”.

Now, what are we going to do about the N’filim?  Well, in the interests of not committing sampling bias (again), look at Numbers 13, especially verses 22 and 33; Deuteronomy 2:11, 20-21; Deuteronomy 3:11, Deuteronomy 9:2, and Deuteronomy 14:33.

Numbers 13:33 says that ten of the Israelites in the reconnaissance team claimed they saw the N’filim there and felt like insects compared to them. This is an exaggeration as well as a personal perception, not a physical reality.

The urban legend then jumps to Numbers 13:22 which talks about Sheshai, Talmai, and Achiman, and Deuteronomy 1:28 which says that these three men were “sons of Anaq”, and the rest of the verses in Deuteronomy that call the Anaqim great and mighty. The urban legend assumes that “great” means they were giants. That isn’t true. It means that the kingdom of the Anaqim was famous and that they had the numbers and weapons to defend it, not necessarily that they were bigger than normal humans. Deuteronomy has a verb which has the same root as anaqim; it is used in context with giving animals and other goods to an eved when he has served out his exclusive services contract. Anaq means strength, not individual physical size.

Then the urban  legend jumps to verses in Deuteronomy about great and mighty nations, among whom are the R’faim, and to Deuteronomy 3:11 which says of Og king of Bashan, “last of the R’faim”, that his iron network “bed” was 9 cubits (13.5 feet) long. It assumes that a big bed means a giant man, and then they reason backwards that all the others were also giants.

The problem is that in old times a mitah, (bed), was often the only place in a house that could be used as a seat. Their houses had a floorspace about as big as one room in your house. Even those “shipping container” apartments that people live in now are bigger than a house in ancient times.

So everybody sat on the mitah at dinner time, kind of like in a Greek or Roman dining room. It had to be 9 feet long to have room for the king’s relatives. What’s more, when his council met, they sat on the mitah too. It was more like an Islamic diwan, the seat of justice, than the bed you sleep in. And the diwan gave its name to our “divan”, another word for sofa. Which is also derived from sofia, the seat of wisdom, the seat where judges sat to exercise their wisdom in a court case.

Urban legends, like gossip and fish stories, have a habit of exaggerating things. It gets more attention than the plain unvarnished truth.

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 5:28-31, Lemekh II

Now I’m going to show you that M’tushelach’s son Lemekh is not the Lemekh of the Qain episodes.

כח וַֽיְחִי־לֶ֕מֶךְ שְׁתַּ֧יִם וּשְׁמֹנִ֛ים שָׁנָ֖ה וּמְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד בֵּֽן:

כט וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶת־שְׁמ֛וֹ נֹ֖חַ לֵאמֹ֑ר זֶ֠֞ה יְנַֽחֲמֵ֤נוּ מִֽמַּֽעֲשֵׂ֨נוּ֙ וּמֵֽעִצְּב֣וֹן יָדֵ֔ינוּ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֵֽרֲרָ֖הּ יְהוָֹֽה:

ל וַֽיְחִי־לֶ֗מֶךְ אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הֽוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־נֹ֔חַ חָמֵ֤שׁ וְתִשְׁעִים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וַֽחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵאֹ֖ת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת:

לא וַֽיְהִי֙ כָּל־יְמֵי־לֶ֔מֶךְ שֶׁ֤בַע וְשִׁבְעִים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּשְׁבַ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיָּמֹֽת:

Lemekh must have lived 187 years; he sired a son.

He named him Noach saying: “This will allow us rest from our deeds and the pain of our hands, from the earth that the Lord had cursed.”

Lemekh must have lived after siring Noach -- 595 years -- for he sired sons and daughters.

All the days of Lemekh must have been 777 years; he died.

Here is the proof that this is a different Lemekh. Number One knew about Qain’s story and his curse, knew about shivataim, the keyword for that narrative, and was presumptuous.

Number Two knows about Adam’s story and the cursing of the earth, and he only hopes for some easing of the itsavon, the keyword from the cursing of the earth, that people have been suffering since then.

Both stories are legends in the sense of being one episode, closing with an important exclamation. But the second Lemekh is worried about how hard it is for people to scratch a living out of the cursed earth. The first Lemekh was worried about his own survival in his descendants. These are two different men, their role in the greater saga is different, and the role of their descendants is different.

Which makes the second legend a Law of Ascents issue. Noach survived the flood. His descendants in the male line populated the area served by the caravans that passed through Ebla. One of his sons, Shem, was the ancestor of the Jews. How much more important can it get?

We are descended from Number Two and that’s why we are not descended from murderers.  Even if Qain and Lemekh were murderers.  Which they were not – not in BH anyway. They may have killed but the verb is horeg not rotseach.

21st Century Bible Hebrew -- Genesis 5:25-27: Metushelach

I apologize for not posting yesterday, I put my brain in backward when I got up and worked on a future blog thread instead.

You know M’tushelach; he lived the longest time of anybody in the Bible.

כה וַיְחִ֣י מְתוּשֶׁ֔לַח שֶׁ֧בַע וּשְׁמֹנִ֛ים שָׁנָ֖ה וּמְאַ֣ת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־לָֽמֶךְ:

כו וַיְחִ֣י מְתוּשֶׁ֗לַח אַֽחֲרֵי֙ הֽוֹלִיד֣וֹ אֶת־לֶ֔מֶךְ שְׁתַּ֤יִם וּשְׁמוֹנִים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּשְׁבַ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֥וֹלֶד בָּנִ֖ים וּבָנֽוֹת:

כז וַיִּֽהְיוּ֙ כָּל־יְמֵ֣י מְתוּשֶׁ֔לַח תֵּ֤שַׁע וְשִׁשִּׁים֙ שָׁנָ֔ה וּתְשַׁ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָ֑ה וַיָּמֹֽת:

M’tushelach must have lived 187 years -- he sired Lemekh --

M’tushelach must have lived, after his siring Lemekh – 782 years – for he sired sons and daughters.

All the years of M’tushelach were 969 years; he died.

Now for another urban legend. Some people will tell you that these genealogies are copied from the Sumerian kings list.

Not even close.

The kings list is available on line. There is no match in any of the names or ages.

The history of the Sumerian kings list is this: about 2000 BCE, when Utu-Hengel shoved the Gutians out of Mesopotamia after they had ruled for a century or two, he commissioned that the kings lists of all the cities be collected and consolidated. The result was found early in the 20^th century and it had two puzzles in it.

One is that all the kings seem to have reigned consecutively, but an additional tablet turned up later which showed that some of them had reigned concurrently, each in his own city. The scribes fudged the dates to fit the concept of consecutive reigns.

The second was that the great city of Lagash had no representatives in the final list. We don’t know why. It certainly was an important city; one of its rulers, Eannatum II, took over all of Mesopotamia about 2500 BCE and appropriated the name “King of Kish”  to show how important he was. He was defeated by the grandson of a woman king of Mesoptamia, Kug Bau. Her grandson was followed by the famous Sargon of Akkad.

About 1700 BCE, the kings list was expanded with a prequel. In the prequel were names from Mesopotamian literature, like Utnapishtim and Gilgamesh and Dumuzi.

The kings list was first composed when the ancestors of the Jews were already living in the Holy Land, more than three centuries after the destruction of the Cities of the Plain.  When the prequel  was added, they lived in Egypt, about a century before the Exodus.  I discuss this timing on the Fact-Checking page.

What’s more, the kings list originated and was maintained in cuneiform. The Jews didn’t read cuneiform. Their ancestors didn’t read cuneiform. Heck, the scribes didn’t read cuneiform very well. Cuneiform scholars point out problems in the second kings list that identify changes in the understanding of the language since the first kings list, such that the scribes didn’t understand what they copied and made mistakes.

These are the same sort of mistakes that would have occurred if Jews living at the end of the Babylonian Captivity had tried to compose new material using the Biblical Hebrew that they knew only from scripture, not from speaking it on the street: spelling errors, fractured idioms, and so on.

The Jews who wrote Neo-Babylonian at the end of the Babylonian Captivity used the “square” lettering now known as the Hebrew alphabet. The Mesopotamian scribes wrote Neo-Babylonian in royal decrees and religious texts, using cuneiform. The standard “Dick and Jane” for cuneiform was a pagan work, Gilgamesh. The only way Jews would have known Gilgamesh was to get accepted to cuneiform school. There’s plenty of room to doubt that, in an up-and-running monotheistic culture, Jews applied to cuneiform school, where they would be exposed to paganism. It was much easier to learn the square script which had the same number of symbols as the “paleo” Jewish script and recorded the same sounds.

The same argument applies to all Mesopotamian literature that has been found only in cuneiform so far, and that includes Enuma Elish and Hammurabi’s code, as well as Gilgamesh and the kings list.  For a more detailed discussion, see the Fact-Checking blog.