מאת: אבנר רמו
In the Book of Ezekiel we read: ולקחת משם מעט במספר; וצרת אותם בכנפיך - “You shall also take thereof a few by number, and bind them in thy skirts” (Eze 5:3).
However, in the Book of Genesis we read:
ויאמר יעקב אל-שמעון ואל-לוי, עכרתם אתי להבאישני בישב הארץ, בכנעני ובפרזי; ואני מתי מספר, ונאספו עלי והכוני ונשמדתי אני וביתי.
“And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi: You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, even to the Canaanites and the Perizzites; and, I being few in number, they will gather themselves together against me and smite me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house” (Gen 34:30).
The phrase מתי מספר (methei mispar) appears also in a couple of other biblical verses (Deu 4:27; Jer 44:28). The understanding of מתי (methei) as “few” by the Greek (and English) translators suggests that this word sounded to them similar to the more common Hebrew word for few: מעט (mea’t) as in: כי מעט המה - “for they are but few” (Jos 7:3). This understanding suggests that the translators believed that מתי (methei) is a misspelled מעטי (mea’tei) - “few.” If the translator’s suggestion is correct than in addition to the deletion of the letter ע (a’) we have here a substitution between the similar sounding dentals ט (t) and ת (th).
The Psalmist wrote (and it appears also in 1 Ch 16:19): בהיותם מתי מספר; כמעט, וגרים בה -“When they were but a few men in number. Yea, very few, and sojourners in it” (Ps 105:12).
However, the word כמעט (kimea’t) appears as a fused form of מעט כמו (kemo mea’t) - “like few” (e.g. Ex 15:5, 8). It is therefore suggested that here כמעט (kimea’t) - “like few” is an explanatory insertion of a late scribe who was concerned that the reader would not understand the unusual phrase מתי מספר (methei mispar).
In the Book of Deuteronomy we also read:
וירד מצרימה, ויגר שם במתי מעט; ויהי-שם, לגוי גדול עצום ורב
“And he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous” (Deu 26:3; see also: Deu 28:62).
However, it is possible that במתי מעט (bemethei mea’t) is a misspelled במעטי מעט (bemea’tei mea’t) - “with very few.”