Hebrew Readers East Africa

בֶּן-שְׁלֹשִים שָׁנָה דָּוִד, בְּמָלְכוֹ
אַרְבָּעִים שָׁנָה מָלָךְ

Second Samuel 5:4

We were challenged by this verse in class
David was 30 years old in his reign"
He ruled for 40 years.

Is the bible reporting that David was 30 years into his rule as king?

Or possbily, at this time in the biblical narrative, King David was 30 years old

Or does the bible teach us that David was annointed king and began his rule at the age of 30?

It is only when we have the contexts of verses preceding and following that we can reach some conclusion.

And if the conclusion is, in fact, that he was annointed King at the age of 30, what was he doing up until then. Surely he was leading.

We can be challenged by Hebrew letters that are stylized differently. Here we have a sample, first, of "Ariel" Hebrew font. Then we have "David" Hebrew font. Note especially the differences in the "vav" and the "khaf sofit"

ורצת בגלגל מראי מלך אשור
" And I ran in the wheel of my master"
"the king of Assysra"
This excerpt from an Aramaic inscription of the 8th century is difficult to comprehend because it is metaphorical and culturally distant from us.
Bar-Rakib, our author, was a loyal vassal to the Assyrian Empire (most likely Tiglath-Pileser III).
"Running by the Wheel": This phrase signifies his submission, service, and proximity to the powerful Assyrian king, indicating he was a favored subordinate, not just a conquered subject.

ancient aramaic scripts used a few consonants to indicate vowel sounds - א ו ה י . In Hebrew language, the early masoretes (500-700 C.E. ) developed several competing systems to mark vowels, including the Babyonian and Palestinian systems.

Our earliest evidence of Aramaic’s long history comes from a series of inscriptions which were found in northern Syria and had been written during the time of Israel’s divided monarchy.* Several of these are from the rulers of a country known as Sam

Although the words אדם (Adam) and איש (Ish) can both be translated as "man", each word conveys unique meaning. A first level of understanding is that אדם references mankind in general, whereas איש references individuals.

מה *אדמ* כי תזכרינו ובן אדם כי תפקדיהו
What is man that you should remember him, and the son of man that you should be mindful of him? Psalm 8:5

אלה תולדות נֹח נֹח *איש* צדיק תמים היה בדורותיו
These are the generations of Noah, Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generations. Beresh*t 6: 9

To better understand the Hebrew in this post and in the bible generally, we need a foundation in Hebrew reading. Contact me on WhatsApp to learn about the Hebrew Readers East Africa program.

Understanding verbal conjugation is fundamental to an understanding of Hebrew. In these examples we add different prefixes to the Hebrew root שלח

Learning to print the Hebrew letters is a helpful way to learn them well. One textbook recommends focusing on the "stick figure" forms of the letters in the far-right columns