Re: Not X marks the spot
April Dorsey-Tyler (adorsey@NETUSA1.NET)
Sun, 20 Apr 1997 12:42:20 -0600
> TILL
> >Well, again, just who is not reading the relevant texts closely enough
to
> >see the contradiction? Verse 7, which Walt quoted above, states that
Saul
> >"smote" the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur and "utterly destroyed ALL
THE
> >PEOPLE with the edge of the sword" (with the exception of Agag, as
noted),
> >but look at what 1 Samuel 27:8 says about David's raid on the
Amalekites:
> >"And David and his men went up and made a raid upon the Geshurites, and
the
> >Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these nations were the inhabitants of
the
> >land, who were of old, as you go to SHUR EVEN UNTO THE LAND OF EGYPT."
So
> >the one text states that Saul utterly destroyed the Amalekites (except
for
> >Agag) from Havilah to Shur, but the other states that there were still
> >Amalekites in the region from Shur to Egypt.
>
> yoel-
>
> No, Mr. Till... there is no contradiction here.
>
> Saul DID smite all of the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur. But there was
a
> tour group of Amalekites on a Carnival Cruise and when they got back, saw
> that all of their kinfolk from Havilah to Shur had been slaughtered, they
> fled southward to Egypt, went to the Amelekite neighbourhoods of Cairo,
got
> the people all stirred up, and they came back to take revenge on the
> Israelites who had slaughtered all of their relatives.
>
> But the Amalekites did not go north of Shur, because when they got there,
> the sultry and surly prophetess Shirley, she of the talking ass*, came
out
> to warn them and that they not should surely not enter lest they surely
die
> and they said "Sure, surly Shirley the sultry seeress, surely the Lord is
> in this place", and it is called thus (Shur) to this day! (with a few
minor
> spelling alterations due to Hebreo-Jurassic ARCHAISMS).
>
> But Shirley was a double agent for the Israelites, sent to stall the
> Amalekites, lest they disrupt David's cavorting with Batsheva. When David
> had finished, God sent him to Shur to fulfill the prophecy "Thou shalt
> SHURLY die" Genesis whatever).
>
> There is no contradiction here.
>
> * see Numbers 22:21-33 and Pink Flamingos
>
>
That was so convincing, Yoel, you might just convert me yet!!
April
>
>
>