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VERSE: Gn15-17e
RULE: The rules of Biblical GRAMMAR are well known and can
be learned from any good Hebrew Grammar book.
Rashi introduced the pedagogic technique of teaching Hebrew
grammar by taking pairs of words that were identical in ALL
respects except for one and showing how each word of the pair
had a different meaning.
In the sequel accents are indicated by [ ].
EXAMPLES:
---------
(1) Gn29-06 "She is coming BA-[AH]
Gn29-09 "She had come [BA]-AH
So two verbs, both 3rd person, singular, female from
an X-VAV-Y root can be
>PRESENT if accented on the 2nd syllable or
>PAST if accented on the 1st syllable.
(2) Gn34-29 "and all their wealth they BOOTIED SHAV-[VU]"
------- "and all their wealth they RETURNED [SHAV]-VU"
So two 3rd person, plural past verbs can come from a
>X-Y-HEY root if accented on the 2nd syllable
>X-VAV-Y root if accented on the 1st syllable
(3) Gn46-26 66 people were COMING(BA-[AH])to Egypt with Jacob
Gn46-27 70 people CAME ([BA]-AH) to Egypt with Jacob*1
NOTES
-----
*1 We now deal with the problems arising from Gn46-26. The
problems are compactly exhibited in the following spreadsheet
which deal with the problem that only 69 people came into
Egypt but the verse says that 70 people came in.
VERSE SUBTOTAL # Not yet in Egypt Already in Egypt
======= ================= == ================ ================
Gn46-15 Children of Leah 33 33 *2 0
Gn46-22 Children of Rachel 14 11 3 *3
Gn46-18 Children of Zilpah 16 16 0
Gn46-25 Children of Bilhah 7 7 *4 0
------------------ -- -- --
Gn46-27 SUBTOTAL 70 67 3
Gn46-12 Judahs 2 sons died -2 -2 0
------------------ -- -- --
SUBTOTAL 68 65 3
Gn46-27 Total from verse 70 66 3
---------------- -- -- --
NEEDED PEOPLE 2*5 1 0
Thus we need 1 extra PERSON OF JACOB(child) who was COMING TO EGYPT
We also need 2 extra PEOPLE OF JACOBS HOUSE who CAME TO EGYPT
(We assume that JACOB himself is included in the count
of JACOBS HOUSE but not in the count of CHILDREN OF JACOB;thus we
in fact need 1 extra person)
A total of 6 suggestions are brought by the Midrash Rabbah
(and 1 extra one of the Rosh). The simplest explanation
brought by Rashi is that
>Someone gave birth or got pregnant on the way
(Apparently this would be Yocheved, explicitly
stated by an OTHER VERSE Ex06-20)*6
NOTES
-----
*2 Includes SERACH; Includes Judahs 2 sons who died
Judah's 2 sons must be excluded FROM THE FINAL COUNT since
they did not come into Egypt They also were not among
those who were COMING INTO EGYPT (they were dead)
*3 Joseph and his 2 sons were ALREADY in EGYPT
*4 This counts DANS children CHUSHIM as 1 child. (According
to Rabbi Meir, Dan had a child CHUSH; the child died; Dan
then named his 2nd child after him; hence the verse says
And the childREN of Dan were CHUSHIM (Plural). It is befitting
that Rabbi Meir knew this since he also lost children.
*5 Gn46-26 says "People OF JACOB Coming to Egypt were 66"
Gn46-27 says "People of JACOBS HOUSE who came were 70"
Thus it is reasonable to INCLUDE JACOB himself in Gn46-27
but not in Gn46-26 since Jacob was part of his own HOUSE
but not part of the PEOPLE OF JACOB(ie Children)
*6 The other explanations are as follows
*6a Attribute it to Rounding (ROSH). Some comparable examples
of Biblical rounding are Lv23-15:16(7 weeks=50 days) and
Dt25-03 (39 vs 40 lashes) But A rounding approach would be
contradicted by all the detail and lists.
*6b Use Dan's 1st child who had the same name as his 2nd child
See NOTE *4
*6c Include God (But God is never referred to as a Soul)
*6d Attempts to include Serach do not make sense since she is
already mentioned explicitly in the counts Similarly any
attempt to include Judahs 2 dead children would not make
sense since they died a long time ago before they actually
came to Egypt
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Volume 4 Number 7
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*# (C) Dr Hendel, 2000 *#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*
Volume 4 Number 7