קוד: בתולת בת ציון בתנ"ך
סוג: פרטים1
מאת: אבנר רמו
אל:
The number of times that we encounter in the Bible the term בני ציון - “sons of Zion” (Joel 2:23; Ps 149:2; Thr 4:2), is similar to that of בנות-ציון - “daughters of Zion” (Is 3:16, 17; 4:4; Can 3:11).
Yet while there is not even a single mention of “son of Zion” the term בת-ציון - “daughter of Zion” appears in twenty-six biblical verses (2 Ki 19:21; Is 1:8; 10:32; 16:1; 37:22; 52:2; 62:11; Jer 4:31; 6:2, 23; Mic 1:13; 4:8, 10, 13: Zep 3:14; Zec 2:14; 9:9; Ps 9:15; Thr 1:6; 2:1, 4, 8, 10, 13, 18; 4:22).
In one of these verses we read:
עוד היום בנב לעמד; ינפף ידו הר בית- (בת-) ציון, גבעת ירושלם.
“This very day shall he halt at Nob, shaking his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem” (Is 10:32).
The Massoretic editor’s correction here of the word “house” to “daughter” is not supported by the Greek translator. Similarly, in verse Is 16:1, the Greek translator, unlike the English one, did not translate בת-ציון to: “the daughter of Zion.” These cases raise the possibility that in several other verses בת-ציון (bath-tsion) is also a letter-deletion error of בית-ציון (beith-tsion) - “house of Zion.”
Here are several possible such cases:
חננני יהוה-ראה עניי משנאי; מרוממי משערי מות.
למען אספרה כל-תהלתיך: בשערי בת-ציון-אגילה בישועתך.
“Be gracious to me, YHWH, behold my affliction at the hands of them that hate me; You that lifted me up from the gates of death;
That I may tell of all Your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion, that I may rejoice in Your salvation” (Ps 9:15; compare to: Jer 22:4).
זנח אדני מזבחו, נאר מקדשו-הסגיר ביד-אויב חומת ארמנותיה; קול נתנו בבית-יהוה, כיום מועד.
חשב יהוה להשחית חומת בת-ציון-נטה קו, לא-השיב ידו מבלע; ויאבל-חל וחומה, יחדו אמללו.
טבעו בארץ שעריה, אבד ושבר בריחיה; מלכה ושריה בגוים, אין תורה-גם-נביאיה לא-מצאו חזון מיהוה.
ישבו לארץ ידמו זקני בת-ציון-העלו עפר על-ראשם, חגרו שקים; הורידו לארץ ראשן בתולת ירושלם.
“YHWH had cast off His altar, He had abhorred His sanctuary, He had given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of YHWH, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
YHWH had purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He had stretched out the line, He had not withdrawn His hand from destroying; but He had made the rampart and wall to mourn, they languish together.
Her gates are sunk into the ground; He had destroyed and broken her bars; her king and her princes are among the nations, instruction is no more; yea, her prophets find no vision from YHWH.
They sit upon the ground, and keep silence, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have cast up dust upon their heads, they have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground” (Thr 2:7-10; see also: Thr 2:18).
In these verses the words: בית-ציון (beith-tsion) - “house of Zion” appears sounder than
בת-ציון (bath-tsion) - “daughter of Zion.”
We also read: בזה לך לעגה לך, בתולת בת-ציון-אחריך ראש הניעה, בת ירושלם - “The virgin daughter of Zion had despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem had shaken her head at you” (2 Ki 19:21; Is 37:22).
However, as the phrase: בתולת בת-ציון is grammatically odd, it is suggested that we should read here: בתולת בית-ציון - “the virgin of the house of Zion.”