On to the Euphrates (Gen 2:14)

Into and Out of the Garden

¹⁴ That is the one that runs east of … ה֥וּא הַֽהֹלֵ֖ךְ קִדְמַ֣ת

We come to our second land, the known land that belongs with the known river, the Tigris, completing the third step in our geography lesson. We spent no serious time discussing it, but the Gusher was described as going around [סובב] the land of Nubia — as if it were an island. This river, however, simply “goes” [הלך h-l-k], the same root that you would use if you were walking. It is more natural in English, I think, to say that a river “runs” than to say it goes — and indeed I’ve read that the Tigris is a swiftly running river, certainly by comparison with the Euphrates.

Where does this river run? East of …

That ellipsis is deliberate. The word qidmat is a noun in construct, that is, it has what I’ve described in Lesson 13 of my Biblical Hebrew course as a built-in trailer hitch. Many synagogue names nowadays begin with such a word, and American Jews often use just that first word as a nickname, a kind of shorthand, for the synagogue:

Where’s the bar mitzvah?

At Bnai.

“Bnai” [בני] means “sons of,” something no one would ever say in Hebrew without the following word, the word that’s attached to the trailer hitch.

The word in our verse, qidmat, occurs just four times in the Bible, and always with that trailer hitch, to tell you that something is east of something else — a valley “east of” the sea in Ezek 39:11; a location where the Philistines camped in 1 Sam 13:5; and, most memorably, the place where Cain settled “east of Eden” in Gen 4:16, just two chapters from now.

[This week’s free post will be on Tuesday instead of today.]