B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

Hi:

A huge problem I have is putting "all the words together" into a "translation that makes sense". I thought it might be good to look at 1 Sam 2:32 and maybe you can give me pointers on the many areas I'm missing.

1 Sam 2:32
וְהִבַּטְתָּ֙ צַ֣ר מָע֔וֹן בְּכֹ֥ל אֲשֶׁר־יֵיטִ֖יב אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וְלֹֽא־יִהְיֶ֥ה זָקֵ֛ן בְּבֵיתְךָ֖ כָּל־הַיָּמִֽים

First I try to tackle the verbs:
וְהִבַּטְתָּ Hiphil perfect 2ms "and you have (surely) seen"

יֵיטִיב Hiphil imperfect 3ms "he/it will be good"

יִהְיֶה Qal imperfect 3ms "he/it will be"

My first attempt would be to do a word-by-word translation (and then try to smooth it out)

-- And you have surely seen the distressed dwelling
-------- in all which will be good Israel,
-- and there will NOT be elderly in your house all the days"

BUT I don't know how to go from the above to a translation that makes "sense" (and I don't consider my first attempt as something that makes sense)

Thanxs for any help!

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

First, notice that the accented vowel in the word והבטת is at the end, so even though the form of that verb is "perfect" (QTL) - it refers to the future.
"And you will see" (it basically doesn't talk about himself specifically but about his future home/family).

*****
צר מעון - is understood as a "short way" of saying.
comes to say:
צר - refers to another priest.
Just as the other wife is called צרה (Like at the beginning of this book)
So is the (competitor) other priest is called צר

מעון is the temple (the place of where the altar is)

And so, he shall see (in jealousy) another priest (not from his family) that will take his (family's) status and serve at the temple.

*
Another way to read צר מעון is as צר=צור (like in another place in the bible)
and so, צור-מעון=צר-מעון - the temple
(and then the meaning is the same - but without writing specifically "another priest")

***
another nice way - והבטת צר מעון
צר = narrow
מעון =like עין - eye
צר מעון - צר עין/עיניים = as with jealousy (not with a good eye)
As saying: that he would see it with jealousy when he sees that his family lost its status to another family.

****************************************

Thanxs ducky!

That makes alot more sense to translate צר as "enemy, foe" (my Hebrew Reader's Bible said it meant "distressed", but I looked up the word in my dictionary and it said "enemy", and with the definition "enemy" it makes a lot more sense, so thanxs for pointing that out).

Would it be fair to say that's a construct chain, i.e. the translation should be "enemy of/in my temple" (so the initial part of the verse is translated "and you will surely see an enemy (aka rival priest) in my temple"?

and thanxs for pointing out it's a waw-consecutive that starts the verse out,

Glenn

Glenn,
Why do you add the word "surely"?

Also ‎ יֵיטִ֖יב is hiphil or causative. It means He will do good, not he will be good.

Ducky,

I have a hard time seeing Samuel as "an enemy".
I think the enemy would be the Philistines who would capture the ark of the covenant.

Thanxs Steve for pointing those out. I'm not sure why I used "surely" except that I probably confused it with the infinite absolute. So I should change my translation to something like "and you will be caused to see ...".

Glenn

Hi Glenn,
‎ וְהִבַּטְתָּ is also hiphil, but the hiphil form of that verb does not seem to have the causative meaning.
We know that by searching for the hiphil occurances of the verb, and it never seems to mean "cause to see".
i.e. Gen 15:5; 19:17.
I say, "seems to" because maybe there is a causative meaning there.

And "you will be caused to see" is passive, but the verb is active.

It may mean, "You will cause [yourself] to see an enemy in the habitation."
Eli caused the Philistines to capture the ark by the dereliction of his high priestly responsibilities.

For sure, לְהַבִּיט just means "to look." There is no causative sense to it. The same with לְהַאֲזִין "to listen" and לְהַקְשִׁיב "to listen, pay attention."

It's not a good idea to see the hiphil as "causative" just for the sake of being causative. It is "causative" only in relation to roots that appear in the qal, for example.

Thanks Jason! That is a great explanation.

Just a footnote to Jason's explanation: when the stem interacts with the meaning of the root, we can translate very literally, such as "he caused to come/enter". But at least in the case of English, we include the causative idea in the lexical form of a word. So in idiomatic English, a "proper" translation would be "he brought", with the causative idea combined with the idea of "movement toward". Sometimes there is no combined English word, so we're forced to use "cause to" in some cases.

Thanks Kirk!