13 August - 10 October 2022 draft-bible
1-2, punctuation. The WEB’s style of alternating commas and semicolons, though perhaps technically correct, is difficult to read due to the constant pauses. The more minimalistic punctuation of the ASV makes for a much smoother reading experience.
3. vale (ASV) is an older word for valley.
5, 7. smote (ASV) is an older word for struck.
7. the Amorites who lived in Hazazon Tamar. WEB reads, with a comma, "The Amorites, who lived in Hazazon Tamar". Grammatically, that would seem to define the Amorites as a people who only lived in Hazazon Tamar. But "Amorites" appear all over Canaan -- in some cases, the term "Amorite" seems to refer to the pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan as a whole. So it seems to me that we should not have such a comma. Although this comma appears in the WEB and ASV, it is absent from the NLT, NKJV, (H)CSB, NAB, NET, NRSV.
8, 10. vale (ASV) is an older word for valley.
10. tar. See Gesenius-LT, HALOT, DCH.
10. [some]. This word is added for clarity. Though not found in the Hebrew, a number of translations supply ‘some’, as the following clause (“those who remained …”) makes it clear that not everyone fell.
11. the hills. Hebrew ha-har, a word sometimes translated ‘mountain’, but which has a broader meaning that includes both mountains and elevated land in general.
11. victuals is a perhaps less well known term for food (Hebrew okel).
13. when he was dwelling. Literally, ‘and he was dwelling’.
14, 16. brother. Hebrew ʾaḥ, sometimes used in the stricter sense (as in verse 12), and sometimes in a looser sense (as here). But English is also capable of flexibility with the word ‘brother’, and I trust that any reader who is paying attention will have already noticed that Lot is Abram’s nephew.
17. from defeating. Hebrew mehakkot, literally, ‘from striking’. It is true that sometimes the verb ‘to strike’ is used in a case where killing is in mind (as in Genesis 8:21). But the language here does not make it clear, as the ASV and WEB’s English rendering ‘slaughter’ would seem to imply, that Abram killed the kings he fought against. The verb ‘strike’ makes it clear only that Abraham defeated the kings, while leaving the question of the king’s personal survival open.
17. vale is an old-fashioned word for valley.
18. God Most High. Hebrew ʾEl ʿElyon.
19. creator. Hebrew qoneh. The most common meaning of the verb qnh in biblical Hebrew is ‘to buy’, and so by extension the KJV-ASV-WEB guess that it refers to ‘possession’ in this instance. And indeed, there is at least one verse, Isaiah 1:3, where ‘owner’ seems to be the meaning of qoneh. But other verses (Psalm 139:13, Proverbs 8:22, perhaps Genesis 4:1) point to a better interpretation: the verb qnh means ‘to create’ here. The Hebrew expression qoneh šamayim waʾareṣ has a number of parallels in cognate languages and within the Hebrew Bible which shed light on its history, and which collectively militate toward understanding ‘creator’ or ‘maker’ as the meaning of qoneh. For more on the details of this, see Habel (1972), “’Yahweh, Maker of Heaven and Earth’: A Study in Tradition Criticism” in the Journal of Biblical Literature.
20. And he gave him a tenth of all. So says the Hebrew, at least theoretically leaving open the question of who is giving what to whom. The WEB may well be correct that the text intends for it to be Abram doing the giving – this is a very common interpretation, held by figures from Paul (Hebrews 7:4) to Nahum Sarna (Genesis, ad loc.). But the Hebrew does not make this explicit, so my preference is not to make it explicit in the English either.
22. creator. As in verse 19.
23. sandal-strap. See BDB, שרוך.
24. I will accept nothing from you. The WEB adds these words, essentially repeating wording from 23.
24. lads. It is from Robert Alter that I adopt the suggestion of reading the Hebrew word naʿar as ‘lad’. See the entry LAD in the appendix “Recurring Words”.
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