5-7. Simeon and Levi.
5 Simeon and Levi—brothers!
Weapons of ruth are their daggers (?).
6 Into their council my soul would not enter,
In their assembly my mind would not join:
For in their anger they slaughter men,
And in their gloating they disable oxen.
7 Accursed be their wrath for it is fierce,
And their rage for it is cruel!
I will divide them in Jacob,
And scatter them in Israel.
5a. brothers] Hardly (Greek characters) (schol. in Field) = 'true
brother-spirits' (Tu. al.), or 'associates' in a common enterprise.
The epithet is probably a survival from an old
tradition in which S. and L. were the only sons of Leah
(see 341. 25; cf. Mey. INS, 2861, 426). It is universally
assumed that that incident—the treacherous attack on
Shechem—is the ground of the curse here pronounced; but
the terms of the oracle are perfectly general and in part
unsuited to the supposed circumstances; and it seems to me
to be the habitual character of the tribes which is denounced,
and not any particular action.—5b. The transl. is doubtful,
5b. G (Greek characters) (OL. consummaverunt iniquitatem adinventionis suæ); Aq. (
Greek characters) [(
Greek characters)];
V vasa iniquitatis bellantia [Je. arma eorum]; S (
Syriac characters);
TO (
Hebrew characters); TJ (
Hebrew characters) [(
Hebrew characters)]
(
Hebrew characters).—(
Hebrew characters)] So Aq. VSTJ; but [E]GTO (
Hebrew characters): 'they accomplished.
(
Hebrew characters)] As to the cons. text, that of G cannot be certainly restored;
Kethib is supported by Aq. STO ((
Hebrew characters): cf. Ezk. 163 2135 2914), by TJ
(from [root] (
Hebrew characters), see IEz.), and probably V. The textual tradition must
therefore be accepted as fairly reliable. Of the many Heb. etymologies
proposed (see Di. 459), the most plausible are those which derive from
[root] (
Hebrew characters), or (reading (
Hebrew characters)) from [root] (
Hebrew characters), 'to dig.' No [root] (
Hebrew characters), 'dig,' is actually
found, though it might perhaps be assumed as a by-form of (
Hebrew characters): this
would give the meaning 'digging instrument' (cf. gladio confodere),
which Vollers (ZA, xiv. 355) tries to support from Ass. The [root] (
Hebrew characters)
means in Ar. 'to turn' or 'wheel round'; hence Di. conj. that (
Hebrew characters) may
be a curved knife or sabre. Some weapon suits the context, but what
exactly it is must remain uncertain. How far the exegesis has been
influenced by the resemblance to the Gr. (
Greek characters) (R. Johanan [d. 279
A.D.], cited in Ber. R. § 99; Ra.) we cannot tell. Ba. and Gu. take the
word to be (
Hebrew characters), the former rendering 'plots' (fr. Ar. makara, 'to plot')