CHAPTER 31
what it means: quite different is Origen, Sel. in Gen. 30: 37, who . ventures on a complex allegorical exposition of LXX.
The word which we have translated as 'that they should become heated', and which Jerome renders as 'that they might conceive', is lkyahménnah: Jerome's exegesis of the word is not known to me from any other source.
CHAPTER 31 verses 7~8 Both Hebrew and LXX have 'your father has deceived me', for which Jerome has put 'your father has lied to me'. LXX's translation of Hebrew mnym as 'lambs' may be the result of homoeophony: the Greek anos sounds not unlike ménim.' But the word is hapax legomenon: hence the variety of meaning given to it by ancient commentators, including LXX. PJ translated it as 'parts', and Rashi, in tune with Gen. Rab. 73: 9, related it to the more common minyan, a 'sum' or 'quorum' of not fewer than ten: thus the wages were changed one hundred times. Otherwise, the meaning 'times, occasions', is favoured by TO, TN, Vg, and Pesh, and is given by Eusebius of Emesa (Devreesse, pp. 77-8) and Diodore
(Petit, ii, 229) as the readings of 'the Syrian'. Origen, Sel. in Gen.
31: 7, notes the readings of Aquila, 'ten numbers', Symmachus, 'ten times in number', and the Hebrew, 'ten times', but persists in attempting to explain the LXX reading. See also Augustine, OG 95.
Virgil, Georgics 2. 150, is adduced to prove that sheep may give birth twice in one year; and Jerome (cf. Augustine, OG 95) points out that the Bible is here relaying the same scientific information as the Roman poet. verse 19 The trapim were sometimes regarded as figures or figurines, not least because of the incident described in 1 Sam. 19:
13-17, where David's wife Michal put ¢*rdpim in the bed to deceive 1 See further Harl, Bible d'Alexandrie, i. 235, and Salvesen, Symmachus, 241, who cites G. B. Caird, 'Homoeophony in the Septuagint', in W. D. Davies, R. G.
Hammerton-Kelly, and R. Scroggs (eds.), Jews, Greeks, and Christians—Religious Cultures in Late Antiquity: Essays in Honour of W. D. Davies (Leiden, 1976), 74~
88; E. Tov, 'Loanwords, Homophony, and Transliteration in the Septuagint', Biblica, 60 (1979), 216-36; J. de Waard, 'Homophony in the Septuagint', Biblica,
62 (1981), 551-61; and J. Barr, 'Doubts about Homoeophony in the Septuagint', Textus, 12 (1985), 1~77. For the possibility that Jerome's understanding of the problem here and in 31: 41 owes something to Eusebius of Emesa and Diodore of Tarsus, see Kamesar, Jerome, 128-9.
Commentary Saul's henchmen into believing that David was sick. Aquila's translation, which Jerome further discusses in Ep. 30. 6, may imply that they were statues in human form: Vg has 'idols', and TO, TN, Nel, and PJ of this verse also regard them as images." Origen, Sel. in Judg. 17: 5, adopts the same interpretation. Jerome suggests that this verse may help us to understand Judg. 17: 5; 18: 14, 17, 18, 20, where the word refers to a cult object set up in the newly founded sanctuary at Dan. verse 21 For the principle of 'anticipation', see the commentary on 14: 7. The mountain does not receive its name until later in this chapter, at verse 47. verse 41 With 'you have changed', Jerome here and in Vg follows the Hebrew and Symmachus, while LXX have 'you have misreckoned'. See above on verses 7-8. For Augustine's attempts to expound LXX of this verse and verse 7, see OG 95. verses 46-7 LXX translated: 'And Jacob said to his brothers:
Gather stones. So they gathered stones and made a mound; and they ate and drank there upon the mound... And Laban called it
Mound of Witness; but Jacob called it Mound is Witness.' The Hebrew for witness is @d, which Jerome has transcribed as aad.
Verse 47 contains the only portion of Aramaic in the Pentateuch, which Jerome refers to here as 'Syrian'. It consists of two words, vocalized in MT as y'°gar sah¢duta'. MT reads: 'And Laban called it y'gar sah*duta, but Jacob called it gal'éd.' Jerome notes that Laban had adopted the Syrian language after the family's departure from Mesopotamia, having referred already to the Aramaic language in QHG 14: 2-3; 22: 20-2. His translation of the Hebrew closely follows LXX, but in Vg he adds at the end of the verse a note, 'each according to the characteristic idiom of his own language', which effectively summarizes his comment here. The LXX have obliterated the distinction between Laban's Aramaic and Jacob's Hebrew, which Jerome strives to retain. Augustine, OG 97, gives exactly the same translations of the Aramaic and Hebrew as Jerome, whose interpretation he probably follows: he says that it has been handed down 'by those who know the Syrian and Hebrew tongue'.
Jerome's remarks are entirely concerned with the languages used and the meanings of words. By contrast Origen (Sel. in Gen. 31: 46) offers no linguistic comment, but presents Jacob as a type of Christ
2 For other interpretations of the word within the Targumic tradition, see Grossfeld, Targum Ongelos to Genesis, 112.