CHAPTER 30
Commentary translate exactly. Vg has copulabitur, 'will be joined'. The sense 'will accompany' is implied in this translation; but another rendering of Jerome's Latin version of what the 'instructors of the Hebrews' say, 'prosequetur me vir meus', would be 'my husband shall honour me'. Such an understanding of the words may be implied in b. Ber. 60a. In Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 68), Levi is said to mean 'added'
(so also pp. 76, 157, 160) or 'taken up'; 'contiguous' is also given (p. 40), verse 35 As here, so in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67) Judah is understood as 'acknowledgement' or 'praise'. The root yddah in the hiphil means both 'praise' and 'confess', hence Jerome's comment and illustration of the sense of the word by means of Matt. 11: 25.
See also the explanation of the name as 'one who acknowledges or glorifies' and 'one who acknowledges or one who praises' in Lib.
Heb. Nom. (pp. 152, 157). His words are close to those of TN of this verse: 'This time we shall praise and glorify before the Lord.
Therefore she called his name Judah.' GM has: 'This time I shall give thanks and utter praise before the Lord'; and see Philo, Leg.
All. 1. 80, 2. 96; De Plant. 134; De Somn. 2. 34.
CHAPTER 30 verses 5-6 Probably following the Hebrew text of these verses, Jerome omits the description of Bala as 'Rachel's handmaid'. The root dyn means 'to judge', and in Lib. Heb. Nom. (pp. 64, 74) Dan is explained as 'judgement' or 'one who judges'. See also Philo, Leg.
All. 2. 96, De Somn. 2. 35; Josephus, Ant. 1. 305. verses 7-8 Jerome has not at first translated LXX, which have:
'and she bore a second son for Jacob. And Rachel said, God has helped me, and I contended with my sister and prevailed Heb. Nom. (p. 70) we read: 'Neptalim—He has preserved me, or He has expanded me [cf. Philo, De Somn. 2. 36], or He has surely entwined me'; but elsewhere in that work the meaning is given as 'breadth' (p. 76) and 'kept apart or separated or he turned or he intertwined me'. In Vg, Jerome renders as: 'God has put me together (comparavit) with my sister.' The Hebrew of verse 8 actually reads: 'And Rachel said, I have wrestled wrestlings of God with my sister, and I have prevailed, naptulé *lohim niptalti im *hoti gam yakolti.' Aquila's translation of the first three words runs: 'God has turned me around with a turning around', and Jerome notes how the Greek may also carry the significance of a 'bringing together'. verses 10-11 The Hebrew text is written (K'thib) as bgd, vocalized as b¢gdd, meaning 'by chance, by fortune': LXX and Jerome in Vg so translate it. But what by tradition is actually read out (Q're) in public recitation of the Hebrew is b@ gad: this means 'luck has come', and is so rendered by TO. The other Targums, PJ, TN, FTV,
FTP, and GM all understood gd in the sense of 'luck, fortune', which is one of the meanings given to Gad in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p.
67) along with 'temptation or brigand' (cf. pp. 75, 160). The K'thib and Q're sound very similar in actual pronunciation.! Aquila derives the meaning 'troop' (so also Lib. Heb. Nom., p. 75, second translation) by interpreting Gad through the root gdd, 'to cut', and its derived noun g*did, 'band, troop': he takes the first element of the expression in the sense of the O're, bd', 'has come, comes'.
Similar is Symmachus: 'Gad, a band of pirates, has come'.2 Thus another meaning of Gad in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67) is 'brigand'; see also Philo, De Somn. 2. 35. Jerome, however, next reverts to the K'thib, and suggests the form b¢gdd, meaning 'in, under troop/ arms'. Throughout, Jerome seems to prefer the K'thib, and to recognize the ambiguity of the Hebrew. The third sense of Gad given in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67) is 'trial'; but it does not feature here. LXX's rendering is problematic, in that it might seem to give authority to the notion that Fortune or Luck was a divine entity: for attempts to combat this, see Augustine, OG 91, who regards Leah's words in that version as merely a facon de parler which she innocently retained from her heathen past. verses 12-13 The meaning of Asher, Hebrew 'Sér, as 'riches' arises from the similar-sounding Hebrew word er, 'riches'. It is to this similarity in sound that Jerome refers at the end of his comment
(see also Ep. 54. 16), when he speaks of the twofold meaning, literally 'ambiguity' of the word.? But the name Asher, whose meaning in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 61) is given as 'blessedness' (also pp. 130, 159) or 'blessed' (also pp. 73, 89, 139, 159), is of course from root 'Sr, meaning 'go straight', and the curious form '@Sré, meaning literally 'the blessedness, happiness of ...'. As Jerome says, verse 13 evidently expects us to understand the name as 1 See further Rahmer, Die bebrdischen Traditionen, 42.
? For discussion of Symmachus' reading, see Salvesen, Symmachus, 48.
3 See Rahmer, Die hebraischen Traditionen, 42-3.
Commentary 'blessed'. See also the comments of Philo, De Sommn. 2. 35, De Mig.
Abr. 95. We should note that many witnesses of LXX do not add 'riches' as an explanation of the name; but VL clearly favoured this interpretation, which is evident in the work of Ambrose and Cyril.# verses 17-18 LXX and VL have:
'and she called his name Issachar, which is a reward.' The italicized words form no part of the Hebrew nor of Jerome's translation of the verse; and he will show that they are not only unnecessary, but misleading. The unvocalized Hebrew form of the name is ysskr. As in the case of Gad's name (above, verses 10-11), tradition presents us with a difference between K'thib and O're. The former, what is written in the Hebrew text and its expected vocalization, is yi$sakar. It seems that Jerome has taken this as yés sakdr, 'there is a reward', following the K'thib; this he has done earlier in Lib. Heb. Nom. (pp. 67,
160). Gen. Rab. 72: 5 states that some Jews held this view. See further 49: 14~15, and the commentary on those verses.* verses 19-20 'My husband shall love (or: choose) me' is read by some witnesses to VL as interpretation of LXX's 'shall choose me'.
Jerome understands the word in a manner close to PJ: 'The Lord has presented (zbd) me with good gifts (zbwdyn) of children: this time my husband's dwelling shall be with me'; and Hebrew root zb/ is understood by TO and Aquila also as 'dwell', probably in the light of 1 Kgs. 8: 13 and its association of zbl with 'house'.* Aquila also translates the verb as 'will dwell with me'. In Lib. Heb. Nom.
(p. 73), Zabulon is explained as 'their dwelling', or 'his oath', or 'dwelling of beauty (v.l. of strength)', or 'night's flowing': this last,
Jerome now states, is incorrect. It is Philo's explanation of the name (De Somn. 2. 34), and seems to be based on zwb 'to flow' and lylh
'night'. Jerome had adopted it, and it is found also in Ambrose, Eps. 12 (30). 10, 19 (71). 5. The phrase is unfortunate, and may mean 'nocturnal emission'." verse 21 Like Dan, Dinah derives from root dyn, 'to judge': see also Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 64), 'this judgement'. Jerome relates the name to the incident described in Gen. 34, where the attempt of Shechem son of Hamor to marry her after he had raped her led to 4 See Wevers, p. 285, first apparatus, and Kamesar, Jerome, 108-9.
5 The readings of K'thib and Q're (which has yissakdr) are discussed in full by Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 1197; see also Rahmer, Die hebraischen Traditionen, 43.
© On the Targumic renderings of zbl, see Grossfeld, Targum Ongelos to Genesis, 109.
? See Kamesar, Jerome, 109-10.
Commentary 2.03 violent reprisals by Dinah's brothers Simeon and Levi. The Greek diké includes the senses of lawsuit, trial, and the penalty exacted from the guilty party, and seems to Jerome to express more directly the full import of the name Dinah. Here, Leah is understood as 'working'; in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 68) she is called 'industrious', both words from Hebrew root I'h, 'to be weary'. Rachel is 'ewe' here and in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 70), where the word is also taken as: 'seeing the beginning' (roots r'h, 'to see', and hil in hiphil, 'to begin'); 'vision of crime, wicked deed' (again r'h, and 1, 'evil'); or 'seeing God' (r'h and 7, 'God'). The meanings 'ewe' and 'seeing
God' are adduced again in the same work (pp. 104, 138). Joseph is 'increase' (root ysp, 'to add') also in Lib. Heb. Nom. (p. 67). verses 32-3 LXX have: 'Let your flocks pass by today, and separate from there every grey sheep among the rams, and every speckled and spotted among the goats: it shall be my wages. And my righteousness shall answer for me on the next day, because my wages are before you. All whatsoever is not spotted or speckled among the goats, and grey among the rams, shall be stolen with me.'® The lengthy exposition of these and the verses following arises, as Jerome says, because LXX is disordered, and clearly had difficulty in translating an awkward Hebrew text. For a valiant attempt to make sense of LXX, see Augustine, OG 93. The latter, given here in a very literal translation to reveal the difficulties, reads: 'I shall pass through all your flock today, removing from there each speckled and spotted animal, and every dark animal among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and it shall be my wage. And my righteousness shall answer for me on the following day, when you shall come over my hire before you.
Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and dark among the sheep, it shall be stolen with me.'
Jerome gives a lengthy paraphrase of the Hebrew, attempting to make sense of things through a rational explanation of what happened, adducing as evidence Spanish equestrian lore: see Augustine,
QG 93, and Oppian, Cynegetica.? The material from Quintilian is unidentified. It is, however, unlikely that Jerome derived his information directly from Oppian, Quintilian, or any other nonChristian source: much of what he knows about animals and their
® On LXX's translation, see further Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 232~3.
* See Vallarsi, PL 23 ad loc. for these references, and the mistaken addition of material from Hippocrates in Erasmus' edition of QHG.
Commentary behaviour seems to have come to him from these writers by way of other Church Fathers." But the same kind of explanation is found also in Jewish sources: some MSS and editions of Gen. Rab. 73: 10 have a story of an Ethiopian man—the parallel in Tanb. B. Naso' 13 refers to a king of the Arabs—whose wife bore a white son: R.
Akiba proceeds to discover that the man had pictures of white men in his house, on which his wife had looked during sexual intercourse.!! Nahmanides hasa similar explanation in his commentary on this verse. Eusebius of Emesa (Devreesse, p. 77) opposed this explanation of events on the grounds that Laban could have imitated them if natural forces alone were at work; rather, an angel showed Jacob what to do, and the result was God's activity. verses 41-2 LXX have: 'And it happened at the time when the flocks became pregnant, conceiving in the belly, that Jacob placed the rods before the flocks in the drinking troughs, so that they should conceive by the rods. But whenever the flocks brought forth he did not put them in; but the unmarked ones were Laban's and the marked ones were Jacob's.' This is very different from the Hebrew, of whicha literal translation would be as follows: 'And it happened, when the stronger (hmq$Srwt) sheep became heated, then
Jacob would put the rods in front of the sheep in the drinking troughs, so that they should become heated by means of (or: among) the rods. But when the sheep were weak (wbh'typ), he did not put them; and the weak ones (h'tpym) were for Laban, and the strong (whq rym) were for Jacob.' LXX had difficulty with the two roots 'tp and q§r, which mean, respectively, 'to be weak' and 'to be vigorous'. On the assumption that first-born animals are the stronger, all the Targums of these verses, Pesh, and Symmachus render the root q&r as 'first-born', and refer 'tp to 'later born', i.e. weaker animals. Jerome here and in Vg agrees with this interpretation, which may also be found in Gen. Rab. 73: 10 (Resh Lakish);
PRK 27: 3; and Bereshith Zutta.' It should be noted that Jerome is concerned to defend the superiority of the Hebrew and to explain
10 See Courcelle, Late Latin Writers, 87-9; and further Jay, L'Exégése de saint Jéréme, 190-4.
1 See also the very similar Haggadah, with detailed description of the circumstances, in Num. Rab. 9: 34.
2 See further Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 232-5.
13 For the last reference, see the discussion in M. Goshen-Gottstein, Fragments of Lost Targumim, i (Ramat-Gan, 1983), 97-8 (in Hebrew). Note that in Gen. Rab. R.
Johanan understands root 'fp to refer to 'first-born' animals.