The following is instructive on how a different vocalization of the consonantal Hebrew text can result in alternative readings of the Old Testament. Here is a scholarly translation and discussion of Ezek 28:12-19:
|
Masoretic Vowels and Accents |
Alternative Reading(s) of Consonantal Text |
|
12 Son of man, raise a lament over the king of Tyre and say to him,
Thus says my lord Yahweh: You were one who seals a measure, full of
wisdom and entirely beautiful. |
Son of man, raise a lament over the
king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says my lord Yahweh: You were a seal of correctness, full of wisdom and entirely beautiful. |
|
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was your hedge: carnelian, topaz, and onyx; yellow jasper, beryl, and jasper; sapphire,
nophek, and emerald, and
gold; [The] handiwork of your drums and your pipes on you. On the day you were created;
they were established. |
You were in the luxury of the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering: carnelian, topaz, and onyx; yellow jasper, beryl, and jasper;
sapphire, nophek, and emerald. And [the] gold of the handiwork of your drums and your pipes [was] on you. |
|
14 You were a cherub of anointment who covers, and
I set you, on the Holy Mountain of God you were, in the midst
of fire stones you walked about. |
When
you were created the
stretched out cherub, who covers was established, then I set
you on the Holy Mountain, you were a god, in the midst of fire stones
you walked about (or) You were with a cherub of anointment who covers,
and I set you on the Holy Mountain of God. You were in the midst of fire
stones. |
|
15 You were
blameless in your ways from the day of your
creation until injustice was found in you. |
You walked about blamelessly in your ways from the day of your creation until
injustice was found in you. |
|
16 By the abundance of your merchandise they filled your midst of violence and you sinned. So I cast you as a profanity from the mountain
of God and I
expelled you, O cherub who covers, from the midst
of stones of fire. |
By the abundance of your merchandise
internally you
were full of violence and you sinned. So I cast you as a
profanity from the mountain of God and a cherub who covers expelled you from the midst of stones of fire. |
|
17 Your heart became exalted because of your beauty. You ruined your
wisdom on account of your splendour. Upon the ground I cast you, before kings
I set you so as to see you. |
17 Your heart became exalted because of your beauty. You ruined your
wisdom on account of your splendour. Upon the ground I cast you, before kings
I set you so as to see you. |
|
18 Because of the abundance of your iniquity, by the unrighteousness
of your merchandise, you profaned your sanctuary. So I brought forth fire from
your midst, it consumed you, then I made you into ash upon the earth before
the eyes of all who saw you. |
18 Because of the abundance of your iniquity, by the unrighteousness
of your merchandise, you profaned your sanctuary. So I brought forth fire from
your midst, it consumed you, then I made you into ash upon the earth before
the eyes of all who saw you. |
|
19 All who know you among the peoples are appalled because of you:
you are terrors and you shall be nothing forevermore. |
19 All who know you among the peoples are appalled because of you:
you are terrors and you shall be nothing forevermore. |
As the above summary shows the
consonantal framework of the Masoretic Text can be read in different ways. The
Masoretes preserve a tradition that reads the text in one particular way, but
this is one of a number of possibilities, and . . . the consonantal text was read differently in
the first centuries of the Common Era. While some of our observations remain
inevitably speculative, in many cases we have followed an alternative
arrangement of the vowels and accents suggested by our early witnesses to the
Masoretic Text tradition (i.e. The Three, Vulgate, Peshitta) or found in
medieval Hebrew manuscripts. In the case of homonyms we have no means of
knowing which of the alternative meanings the tradition of vocalization
preserved by the Masoretes intended. Consequently, these represent the
possibility of an alternative readings still latent in the text, rather than an
alternative to the reading given by the Masoretes.
Source: Hector
M. Patmore, Adam, Satan, and the King of Tyre: The Interpretation of Ezekiel
28:11-19 in Late Antiquity (Jewish and Christian Perspectives 20; Leiden:
Brill, 2012), 205-6
