I just noticed for the first time that in the beginning of Parshat Noach, the word translated as "corrupt" in the description of the world, and the word translated as "destroy" when God tells Noach what God is going to do about it are literally the same word.
In Ber. 6:12 the JPS translation reads:
"When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on Earth"
Both instances of "corrupt" there, the adjective and the verb, are conjugations of
שחת
"When God saw how corrupt the earth was, for all flesh had corrupted its ways on Earth"
Both instances of "corrupt" there, the adjective and the verb, are conjugations of
שחת
In Ber. 6:13, immediately following, God tells Noach "I am about to destroy them with the Earth". The word "destroy" is a conjugation of the exact same word:
שחת
שחת
The Flood is almost always cited as a primary example of the "OT God is mean" line of rhetoric. God, in the plain reading of the English translation, decides that *everything*, the whole Earth, gets destroyed because of some bad actors.
But reading it through this time, it seems to me like the plain reading of the Hebrew says that the whole Earth is *already* destroyed. Verses 11 and 12 tell us *why* it's already corrupt/destroyed - because "all flesh" has turned it's ways to corruption/destruction.
The repetition of 'shachat' in the preceding two verses makes God's stated action seem less like a decision and more like an inevitability. A natural consequence of the extent to which destruction has already been enacted.
There's a lot of commentary on Ber. 6:13 about why the end is written as 'eth-h'eretz'. The general consensus is that it should be read as "along with the Earth". Which makes total sense, since the exact same verb is applied to the Earth in the two preceding verses.
Translating it the same throughout:
"God saw how the Earth was destroyed, for all flesh had made destructive its ways on Earth. God said to Noach... I will destroy them along with the Earth". Read that way, it's God disallowing destroyers from escaping their own actions.
"God saw how the Earth was destroyed, for all flesh had made destructive its ways on Earth. God said to Noach... I will destroy them along with the Earth". Read that way, it's God disallowing destroyers from escaping their own actions.
The repetition of the same word makes it seem to me more like poetic justice (contrasting with 'injustice', which is another meaning of the word that describes what the world is filled with) rather than the action of a vindictive God.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
