Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
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S. Japhet / Vetus Testamentum <strong>IOSOT</strong> (<strong>2013</strong>) 36-76 55<br />
c) The word מגרש alone <strong>and</strong> the phrase עיר מגרש are turned in Chr. into<br />
technical terms denoting the levitical <strong>and</strong> priestly cities themselves. This last<br />
meaning is peculiar to the Chr. <strong>and</strong> is found nowhere else in the O.T.<br />
1) 1 Chr. xiii 2. והלויים בערי מגרשיהם“ .”הכהנים The RSV translation is literal:<br />
“The priests <strong>and</strong> Levites in the cities that have pasture l<strong>and</strong>s”. But ערי מגרש in<br />
Chr. means “levitical <strong>and</strong> priestly cities”, <strong>and</strong> so the whole verse is: “Let us send<br />
abroad to our brethren who remain in all the l<strong>and</strong> of Israel, <strong>and</strong> with them to<br />
the priests <strong>and</strong> Levites in their cities that they may come . . .”.<br />
מגרשיהם again, Here ”כי עזבו הלויים את מגרשיהם ואחוזתם“ :13-14 (2 2 Chr. xi<br />
is not only the pasture l<strong>and</strong>s surrounding the cities but the cities themselves. It<br />
should be translated: “The Levites left their cities <strong>and</strong> their possessions”.<br />
3) 2 Chr. xxi 19 אהרן הכהנים בשדי מגרש עריהם“ ”ולבני This, again is translated<br />
literally by RSV, “. . . The priests who were in the fields of common l<strong>and</strong><br />
belonging to their cities”. In fact, the text does not refer to the priests in “the<br />
שדה מגרש Jerusalem. common l<strong>and</strong>” but to the priests who were not present in<br />
them- is taken over as a whole from Lev. xxv 34 <strong>and</strong> refers to the cities עריהם<br />
selves. Here again it should be translated: “The priests . . . in their cities”, <strong>and</strong><br />
thus it continues: “there were men in the several cities who were designated by<br />
name to distribute portions . . .”.<br />
The technical term עיר מגרש is found, as a fixed term for the cities themselves,<br />
in later literature.102<br />
In Ezr.-Neh. we find neither the word מגרש nor the technical term. Ezr.-Neh.<br />
describes the settlement of the returned exiles, <strong>and</strong> among them the priests<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Levites. Nehemiah mentions that “. . . The Levites <strong>and</strong> the singers who<br />
did the work, had fled each to his field” (Neh. xiii 40) but the cities are not<br />
mentioned. This is all the more significant because we do have evidence in<br />
Ezr.-Neh. for the existence of these cities.103 “And at the dedication of the wall<br />
of Jerusalem they sought the Levites in all their places to bring them to Jerusalem.<br />
. . . And the sons of the singers gathered together from the circuit round<br />
Jerusalem <strong>and</strong> from the villages of Netophathites . . . for the singers had built<br />
themselves villages around Jerusalem” (Neh. xii 27-29).<br />
“משחרב בית המקדש בטל מלכות מבית דוד ובטלו אורים ותומים ופסקו ערי II. (102 Tosefta Sota 13<br />
אף לא 5: (Very similar in the Babylonian Talmud Sota 48 b). The Mishna Ma’ser Sheni xiv ”מגרש<br />
The translations here too .אומר: יש להם ערי מגרש ”. . . כהנים וליים שלא לקחו חלק בארץ. רבי יוסי:<br />
overlook the special technical significance of the construct state ערי מגרש which is literally “cities<br />
of a pasture l<strong>and</strong>” <strong>and</strong> translate it “cities with pasture l<strong>and</strong>”. Actually it should be translated as a<br />
unit: “levitical cities”.<br />
103) Cf. S. Klein: “The Priestly <strong>and</strong> Levitical cities, etc.” (Hebrew), 1934, p. 19.