{"id":76149,"date":"2020-06-17T13:15:52","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76149"},"modified":"2020-06-17T13:15:52","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:15:52","slug":"the-pit-of-shitim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-pit-of-shitim\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pit of Shitim"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"76149","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"505","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"

I would like to focus my comments here entirely on verse 2 and elaborate on the difficulties in its interpretation and several of the attempts made to understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new JPS translation reads: \u201cFor when trappers dug deep pitfalls, I was the only reprover of them all.\u201d Compare this with the older (1917) JPS version: \u201c<\/span>And they that fall away are gone deep in making slaughter; And I am rejected of them all,\u201d and, finally, ArtScroll: \u201c[By preventing] the slaughter [of offerings] the deviants deepened [iniquity], and I castigate them all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The least problematic word in the verse is <\/span>he`emiku<\/span><\/em>, from the verbal root <\/span>`-m-k<\/span><\/em>, and all three translations convey it as a form of \u201cdeep.\u201d Slightly more complicated is <\/span>musar<\/span><\/em>. The later JPS (reprover) along with ArtScroll (castigate) take it as a derivative of the verbal root <\/span>y-s-r<\/span><\/em>, to rebuke, chastise, or moralize, while the older JPS (rejected) seems to derive it from <\/span>s-u-r<\/span><\/em>, to turn aside or astray.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The crux of the verse, however, lies in the first two words: <\/span>veshachata sheitim<\/span><\/em>, which are enigmatic. <\/span>Sh-ch-t<\/em> <\/span>means to slaughter (old JPS and ArtScroll) and while there is no other usage in Tanakh of <\/span>sheitim<\/span><\/em>, there are instances of <\/span>shitim<\/span><\/em>, such as the acacia trees of which the Mishkan and its appurtenances were constructed.<\/span><\/p>\n

ArtScroll\u2019s translation of \u201cdeviants\u201d seems to rest on the assumption (shared by Rashi and Radak) that the root <\/span>sh-u-t<\/em> <\/span>is related to <\/span>s-u-t<\/span><\/em>, signifying irregularity or aberration (as in <\/span>sotah<\/span><\/em>), and may be reflected as well in the older JPS \u201cfall away.\u201d Whence, though, did the newer JPS get \u201ctrappers\u201d and \u201cpitfalls\u201d? The answer, which requires an emendation (correction) of the Masoretic text, is nevertheless wholly consistent with the context.<\/span><\/p>\n

The immediately previous verse compares the priests and rulers of Israel to traps: \u201cThey have been a snare (<\/span>pach<\/span><\/em>) to Mitzpah and a net (<\/span>reshet<\/span><\/em>) spread about Tabor;\u201d if we were to change but one letter of our problematic <\/span>veshachata<\/span><\/em> from a <\/span>tet<\/span><\/em> to a <\/span>tav<\/span><\/em>, it would yield the noun <\/span>shachat<\/span><\/em>, a synonym of <\/span>pach<\/span><\/em> and <\/span>reshet<\/span><\/em> (see Psalms 35:7).<\/span><\/p>\n

My suggestion (with Robert Alter) is that <\/span>shitim<\/span><\/em>, the aforementioned acacia trees, is a place name: the name of the place where the Israelites of a much earlier era had gone whoring (<\/span>liznot<\/span><\/em>) with the \u201cdaughters of Moab\u201d (Numbers 25:1). Given the prominence this theme occupies in the previous chapters of Hosea, it would not be untoward to read the verse\u2014along with its predecessor\u2014as a condemnation of the religious and political leadership for committing immoral acts so egregious that they went deeper even than those of the infamous Shitim.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Pit of Shitim","main_caption":"Immoral acts so egregious that they remind us of the place where the ancient Israelites had gone whoring","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76150,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76149\/revisions\/76150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}