04_Biblica_AN_Bar_Layout 1 16/12/13 12:27 Pagina 567 WHAT DID THE SERVANT GIVE TO REBECCA’S BROTHER AND MOTHER? 567 masculine form meged and the plural ~ydgm are found in late Mishnaic He- brew. This provides further evidence that our text from Genesis is a late composition 5. Remarkably, the term mgdnt appears together with silver and gold in three of the four citations (Gen 24,53; Ezra 1,6; 2 Chr 21,3). The mention of silver and gold very likely prompted the translation of mgdnt as pre- cious gifts. However, we will demonstrate that this is not the case and that mgdnt should be taken as a reference to fruits. II. meged in the Bible The masculine singular noun meged appears five times in Deut 33,13- 16. Major translations and dictionaries vary on how they render this noun: “a harvest of fruits” (HALOT); “gifts of nature” (BDB); and “choice pro- duce” (DCH) 6. In Aramaic adgm and the plural !ydgm signify “fine fruits, delicacies”, which the LXX renders as τά ὡραία. In Syriac maḡdā means fruit — plural ~ydgm and mgdnt — while in Arabic majd means “glory”, “honor”, “nobility”, and in Palmyrene adgm means precious offering 7. Deuteronomy 33,13-17 contain blessings that were bestowed on Joseph. It is believed that those blessings were given when the tribes of Joseph and Ephraim were stronger than the rest of the tribes of Israel. Ac- cording to Cassuto this blessing was part of the liturgy of the tribe of Ephraim, probably at the temple of Shiloh 8. The emphasis in these bless- ings is on fertility. The blessings on Joseph resemble the blessings that were given to Joseph by Jacob (Gen 49,22-26). The blessing of fertility in Deut 33,13-16 coincides with Gen 49,25-26. The repetition of the word meged creates a connection between the two texts. Tigay says that the word meged has a double meaning, with the sense of “gift”, “blessing”, and “choice of fruits”. The double meaning is that the rain and water are both the fruits of heaven and earth as well as their gifts 9. According to Deut 33,13 the result of dew was abundant crops (meged). Verse 14 mentions the bounteous (meged) yield of the sun, and the bounteous (meged) crops (geresh) of the moon. The first part mentions 5 M. JASTROW, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (New York, 1950) 2,726. 6 HALOT, 2,543; BDB, 550; DCH, 130. 7 C.F. JEAN – J .HOFTIJZER, Dictionnaire des inscriptions sémitiques de l’Ouest (Leiden 1960) 142. 8 U. CASSUTO, Biblical and Canaanite Literatures (Jerusalem 1979) 21. 9 J. TIGAY, Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia, PA 1996) 327.