Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/619

 owing partly to uncertainty of text, and partly to the obscurity of the  (v.i.). The rendering above gives a good sense, and Ba.'s objection, that daggers are necessarily implements of violence, has no force.—6a. council assembly] The tribal gatherings, in which deeds of violence were planned, and sanguinary exploits gloated over. The distich expresses vividly the thought that the true ethos of Israel was not represented in these bloody-minded gatherings.—6b. men oxen] The nouns are collectives.—slaughter  hough] Perfects of experience. The latter operation (disable by cutting the sinew of the hind-leg) was occasionally performed by Israelites on horses (Jos. 11$6. 9$, 2 Sa. 8$4$); to do it to a domestic animal was evidently considered inhuman. No such atrocity is recorded of the assault on Shechem (see 34$28$). —7b. in Jacob in Israel] The speaker is plainly not the individual patriarch, nor the Almighty (Land), but the personified nation.

and the latter 'pits' (cf., Zeph. 2$6b$); but neither (Ba.) nor ['knavery and violence are their pits'] (Gu.) is so good as the ordinary interpretation. Ba., however, rightly observes that yields a better metre than —(so Siev.).—6a. ] Read with G, 'my liver,' the seat of mental affections in La. 2$9$ (cf. Ps. 16$11$ 30$9$ 57$13$ 108$9$: MT ): cf. kabittu, 'Gemüth,' in Ass.—] [E]. Since is masc., rd. .—6b. ] 'self-will,' 'wantonness'; cf. Neh. 9$2$, Est. 1$24. 37$ 9$8$ etc.—] On certain difficulties in the usage of the word, see Batten, ZATW, xxviii. 189 ff., where it is argued that the sense is general—'make useless.'—] Aq. ΣVST$5$ read, 'wall,' perhaps to avoid the supposed contradiction with 34$O$. Hence the correct of G is instanced in Mechilta as a change made by the LXX translators (see p. 14).—7., ] [E] , .—] Here pausal form of (ct. v.$28f.$).