Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/191

 a fitting conclusion to the main narrative, in which it probably followed immediately on v.$19$.—24. He drove out the man and made [him] dwell on the east of [and stationed] the Cherubim, etc.] This is the reading of G (v.i.), and it gives a more natural construction than MT, which omits the words in brackets. On either view the assumption is that the first abode of mankind was east of the garden. There is no reason to suppose that the v. represents a different tradition as to the site of Eden from 2$8$ or 2$10ff.$. It is not said in 2$8$ that it was in the extreme east, or in 2$10$ that it was in the extreme north; nor is it here implied that it was further west than Palestine. The account of the early migration of the race in 11$2$ is quite consistent with the supposition that mankind entered the Euphrates valley from a region still further east.—the Cherubim and the revolving sword-flame] Lit. 'the flame of the whirling sword.' It has usually been assumed that the sword was in the hand of one of the cherubim; but probably it was an independent symbol, and a representation of the lightning. Some light may be thrown on it by an inscription of Tiglath-pileser (KIB, i. 36 f.), where the king says that when he destroyed the fortress of Ḫunusa he made 'a lightning of bronze.' The emblem appears to be otherwise unknown, but the allusion suggests a parallel to the 'flaming sword' of this passage.

The Cherubim.—See the notes of Di. Gu. Dri.; KAT$3$, 529 f., 631 ff.; Che. in EB, 741 ff.; Je. ATLO$2$, 218; Haupt, SBAT, Numbers, 46; Polychrome Bible, 181 f.; Furtwängler, in Roscher's Lex. art. .—The derivation of the word is uncertain. The old theory of a connexion with (Greif, griffin, etc.) is not devoid of plausibility, but lacks proof. The often quoted statement of Lenormant (Orig. i. 118), that kirubu occurs on an amulet in the de Clercq collection as a name

into a historic tense.—] GS om.—24. G. = Ball rightly adopts this text, inserting after, against J's usage. There is no need to supply any pron. obj. whatever: see 2$19$ 18$7$ 38$18$, 1 Sa. 19$13$ etc. For the first three words S has simply, and for (with the cherubim, etc., as obj.).—] Hithpa. in the sense of 'revolve,' Ju. 7$13$, Jb. 37$12$; in Jb. 38$14$ it means 'be transformed.'