Re: Babel 'translation'...

Mark J. Reed scripsit:

> In the original
> versions of the stories that were eventually written down to form the
> Torah, YHWH was not the only god, but one of many, and this is one of
> several places where that plurality is still evident in the modern
> forms.
Another neat spot can be seen in 2 Kings 3.  The king of Moab has
refused to pay tribute (vs. 5) and Elisha the prophet says that
God "will deliver the Moabites also into your hand" (vs. 18).
But the king of Moab, finding that mere military measures are
insufficient (vss. 24-26), takes more drastic action:

	Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his
	stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall.  And
	there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed
	from him, and returned to their own land. [vs. 27]

So the Israelites lost due to the "great indignation against" them.
But who was greatly indignant?  The text doesn't say, but it's not hard
to see that it was originally Chemosh (vowels dubious), the god of Moab,
who accepted the sacrifice and drove the Israelites from his city.
Chemosh was edited out of the text when the Hebrews moved from
henotheism ("your god is real, but my god can beat your god") to
monotheism ("your so-called gods do not exist").

--
Values of beeta will give rise to dom!          John Cowan
(5th/6th edition 'mv' said this if you tried    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
to rename '.' or '..' entries; see              jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html)