Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Hector M. Patmore on the Masoretic Text and Alternative Reading(s) of the Consonantal Text of Ezekiel 28:12-19

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