And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him (Gen 23:5)
And the Hittites replied to Abraham, saying to him (Gen 23:5 | 1985
JPS Tanakh)
עֲנ֧וּ בְנֵי־חֵ֛ת אֶת־אַבְרָהָ֖ם לֵאמֹ֥ר
לֽוֹ (Masoretic
Text)
The children of Heth replied to Abraham: “Pray, (E. A. Speiser, Genesis:
Introduction, Translation, and Notes [AYB 1; New Haven: Yale University Press,
2008], 168)
5. Pray. Here and in vs. 14
the text (cons. lw) is pointed as lō “to him,” and construed with the
preceding “saying/as follows”; but such a construction would be unidiomatic;
the only partial analogue is found in Lev 11:1, as against hundreds of
instances without a pronoun. The letters stand, no doubt, for the precative
particle lū “would that,” for which
cf. 17:18, 30:34; here a mark of exaggerated politeness, approximately “but
please!” Misinterpretation of the text led to wrong verse division both here
and in 14. (E. A. Speiser, Genesis: Introduction, Translation,
and Notes [AYB 1; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008], 170)
And the Hittites answered Abraham, saying: (Robert Alter, The
Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2019], 1:75)
This translation follows E. A. Speiser, as well as the ancient Aramaic
version of Yonatan ben Uziel, in reading lu for lo (“to him”) and
moving their monosyllabic term at the end of verse 14 moving into the beginning
of verse 15. Although one critic, Meir Sternberg (1991), has made an ingenious
attempt to rescue the Masoretic Text at these two points, there is a simple compelling
argument against it: the formula for introducing direct speech, le’mor, “saying,”
is always immediately followed by the direct speech, not by a preposition “to
him” (lo). And the repetition of the optative particle, lu, “pray,”
is just right for beginning each round of this elaborately polite bargaining. (Robert
Alter, The Hebrew Bible, 3 vols. [New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2019], 1:75)
Aramaic of Targum
Pseudo-Jonathan to the Pentateuch:
ואתיבו בני חיתאה ית אברהם למימר ליה
5. And the sons of the Hittite replied to Abraham, saying to him, (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis [trans.
Michael Maher; The Aramaic Bible 1B; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press,
1992], Logos Bible Software Edition)
