Poetic Forms in the Masoretic Vocalization and Three Difficult Phrases in Jacob's Blessing: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Gen 49:3), [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (49:4), and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (49:10) (Critical Essay‪)‬

In memory of my esteemed teacher, Moshe Greenberg [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Jacob's Blessing in Genesis 49 is full of difficult phrases that have challenged exegetes since antiquity. In this article I shall discuss three of these: [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (v. 3), [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (v. 4) and [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (v. 10). Although all of these phrases have been emended, I shall attempt to show that they make perfect sense as they are. I shall argue that, in all of these phrases, the Masoretes have succeeded in preserving linguistic features peculiar to the poetic dialect of Biblical Hebrew in their oral reading tradition(s). Finally, I shall note some other successes of the Masoretes (alongside some of their failures) and discuss the light that they shed on the history of the Masoretic reading tradition(s).