Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/383

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9, 10. The preparations for the covenant ceremony; on which see below, p. 283. Although not strictly sacrificial,[1] the operation conforms to later Levitical usage in so far as the animals are all such as were allowed in sacrifice, and the birds are not divided (Lv. 117).—of three years old] This is obviously the meaning of (Symbol missingHebrew characters) here (cf. 1 Sa. 124 [G]: elsewhere = 'threefold,' Ezk. 426, Ec. 412). TO, which renders 'three' (calves, etc.), is curiously enough the only Vn. that misses the sense; and it is followed by Ber. R., Ra. al. On the number three in the OT, see Stade, ZATW, xxvi. 124 ff. [esp. 127 f.].—11. The descent of the unclean birds of prey ((Symbol missingHebrew characters)), and Abram's driving them away, is a sacrificial omen of the kind familiar to antiquity.[2] The interpretation seems to follow in 13-16 (Di. Gu.).—12. (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (G (Symbol missingGreek characters)) is the condition most favourable for the reception of visions (see on 221).—a great horror] caused by the approach of the deity (omit (Symbol missingHebrew characters) as a gloss). The text is mixed (see below), and the two representations belong, the one to J, and the other to E (Gu.). The scene is a vivid transcript of primitive religious experience. The bloody ceremony just described was no perfunctory piece of symbolism; it touched the mind below the level of consciousness; and that impression (heightened in this case by the growing darkness) induced a susceptibility to psychical influences readily culminating in ecstasy or vision.—13-16. An oracle in which is unfolded the destiny of Abram's descendants to the 4th generation. It is to be noted that the prediction relates to the fortunes of Abram's 'seed,' the mention of the land (16) being in-


9. (Symbol missingHebrew characters) Dt. 3211[B] = young of the vulture; but here = 'young dove'; Ar. ǧauzal; Syr. (Symbol missingSyriac characters).—10. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] a technical term; the vb. only here; cf. (Symbol missingHebrew characters), Jer. 3418. 19(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] [E] (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (inf. abs.).—(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] cf. 95; G-K. § 139 c.—11. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)] GA (Symbol missingGreek characters); a conflation of (Symbol missingHebrew characters) and (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (v.17).—(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] Hiph. of (Symbol missingHebrew characters) only here in the sense of 'scare away': so Aq. ((Symbol missingGreek characters)) SV. TO read (Symbol missingHebrew characters), which is less expressive; and G (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is quite inadmissible.—12. (Symbol missingHebrew characters)(Symbol missingHebrew characters)] G-K. § 114 i; cf.

  1. So in the covenant between Ašur-nirâri and Mati'ilu (MVAG, iii. 228 ff.), the victim is expressly said not to be a sacrifice.
  2. Comp. Virg. Aen. iii. 225 ff.