CHAPTER 16
plunder Israel's possessions; but the merit of Abraham was protecting them'; cf. Gen. Rab. 44: 16 (R. Azaraiah). See also TN for a more complex presentation of the same idea, and Ngl, FTP, and FTV, which speak of Abraham's merit protecting Israel from the depredations of the four world empires.° verse 12 See commentary on 2: 21. VL, Ambrose (Ps. 8. 1. 1) and Augustine (QG 30) use pavor, 'terror', to describe Abraham's state, to which LAB 23: 6 adds 'sleep'. verse 16 The apparent contradiction between this verse and Exod.
13: 18 in the LXX was one of the questions Jerome addressed in his Ep. 36. 10-13 to Pope Damasus, to which he refers his readers.
There, after careful computation of the biblical genealogies, he notes Aquila's rendering of Exod. 13: 18, that Israel came up from Egypt 'armed', explaining how the Hebrew so rendered is bmsym.
This word, says Jerome, was also taken by the synagogue of his day to mean 'armed' (Ep. 36. 13); but he remarks how the sense of 'five' or 'fifth' may also be derived from it if its root is taken as the numeral /m8, 'five'. In this, his interpretation resembles Mekh. de
R. Ishmael Beshallah 1: 70-85. Jerome follows Aquila and TO in his rendering of Exod. 13: 18.
CHAPTER 16 verse 2 Jerome does not here quote LXX, which reads 'that you may produce children through her' (so also VL), but comes close to translating the Hebrew.' This he quotes, understanding the form
'bnb as niph'al of root buh, 'to build' in the same manner as the MT, TO, PJ, TN, Gen. Rab. 45: 2; 71: 7. Scripture uses this word to describe the raising up of children: see, most clearly, 2 Sam. 7: 1112. In post-biblical tradition, we find the word used in the same sense: TN of Lev. 20: 17 speaks of God having given to the first human beings a favour to marry within forbidden degrees so that the world might be built up.* See Jerome's comments above on rz:
29, and below on r9: 30.
5 See further Geiger, Urschrift, 457-8; Rahmer, Die hebraischen Traditionen, 29; le Déaut, Targum du Pentateuque, i. 171; id. La Nuit pascale, 147-8.
1 For the readings of VL, see Fischer, p. 180; and for LXX's translation, see Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 164.
? The Hebrew of this verse says:
'If a man takes his sister...and sees her Commentary In quoting Exod. 1: 20-1, he seems to agree with the Jewish tradition that God had rewarded with progeny the midwives
Shiphrah and Puah, who delivered Israelite babies in Egypt under Pharaoh's oppression. These were royal and priestly offspring, according to PJ, TN, FTV of this verse, and b. Sot r1b, Sifre Num.
78, Exod. Rab. 1: 17, Tanh. Wayyaqhel 4. Yet what he quotes from Exodus does not agree with the Hebrew text, which reads: 'And God did good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty. And because the midwives feared God, He made houses for them'. LXX, however, with FTP and FTV translated the final words as 'they made houses for themselves'. In Vg
Jerome translated the last clause as 'and He built houses for them', even though the verb used in Hebrew is 'made'; he may have been influenced by a text like Gen. 33: 17, where 'build' and 'make' appear as equivalents. Thus in the Hebrew Jacob is said to have
'built a house for himself, and he made booths for his cattle'. LXX rendered both verbs here as 'made'. verse 7 The woman concerned is Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, who had been evicted from Abraham's household. verse 11 Jerome's translation of this verse corresponds with neither the Hebrew nor LXX, which have: 'And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your humiliation.'
The speaker of these words is an angel: Jerome may have altered the text to present it as a description of what happened in the naming of Ishmael. For this meaning of the name, compare also Aquila;
Philo, De Mut. Nom. 202, De Fuga 208; Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67); PRE 30: 5; 32: 1. The Hebrew yi Smdaé'l probably means 'May God hear', or, 'God shall hear'; but one does not listen to suffering or humiliation, hence TO translates 'the Lord has accepted your prayer'. verse 12 'Boorish', rusticus, is used also by VL. Jerome attempts to reproduce the sound of the Hebrew pere' in Vg with ferus, 'wild, savage', following Aquila's translation as agrios, 'wild', especially used of wild animals. He refers elsewhere to the descendants of nakedness, it is a shameful thing [hesed], and they shall be cut off...'. TN tells of God's allowing, by a special favour (hesed in Hebrew, hisda' in Aramaic), the world to be built up by these incestuous unions, which, since the giving of the Law, are a disgrace (also besed in Hebrew, bisda' in Aramaic). See also Sifra Qedoshim Pereq
11: 113 b. Sanh. 58b; jer. Yeb. 11: 11, PRE 21: 13 Midrash Pss. 89: 3 on the verse 'the world shall be built up through hesea'; and Grossfeld, The Targum Ongelos to Leviticus, 43.