north, south, east, and west
צָפֹ֥נָה וָנֶ֖גְבָּה וָקֵ֥דְמָה וָיָֽמָּה׃
I’m going to take these direction words out of order, saving צפון tzafōn ‘north’ — first in this phrase, but the one of these directions we haven’t yet seen — for last. That will bring us, by the end of this post, to Jacob at Bethel and then to Moses (of all people) also at Bethel.
east
We start with the direction that is most often at the top of the map in this ancient perspective, the east. In our verse, that is קֶדֶם qédem, which more literally means “in front.” As we’ve discussed, the same word/concept can also refer to the time that is metaphorically “in front” of us, the past, as opposed to the future, which is hidden from us. Having just reread Guy Deutscher’s Through the Language Glass, I must wonder whether the idea of civilization spreading from the east is one that seemed natural in a language where east is parallel to ancient.
