While listening to Robert Alter’s translation of Genesis I encountered a coincidental but interesting conceptual parallel in the Hebrew Bible. I would say ‘terminological’ parallel, but the verbs are different, even though they have some semantic overlap.
Genesis 22:17:
וְיִרַ֣שׁ זַרְעֲךָ֔ אֵ֖ת שַׁ֥עַר אֹיְבָֽיו (va’yirash)
“Your offspring shall possess (Alter: “take hold of”) the gate of their enemies.”
Genesis 24:60:
וְיִירַ֣שׁ זַרְעֵ֔ךְ אֵ֖ת שַׁ֥עַר שֹׂנְאָֽיו (va’yirash)
“And may your descendants possess (Alter: “take hold of”) the gate of those who hate them.”
“Take hold of” along with “gate” is what sparked a memory association with the story of Samson, who quite literally took hold of the gates of the enemies of Israel in Gaza:
Judges 16:3:
וַיֶּאֱחֹ֞ז בְּדַלְתֹ֤ות שַֽׁעַר־הָעִיר֙ (va’yehoz)
“and took hold of the doors of the city gate”
Where אָחַז (cf. va’yehoz), in Judges, can mean either to take hold of or to possess. The word יָרַשׁ (cf. va’yirash), in Genesis, however, seems more narrow, with the meaning of to possess or inherit, but is not literally (despite Alter’s translation) “take hold of” – so far as I can tell.
Nonetheless, it is quite interesting to muse whether God had a mighty but flawed man such as Samson in mind even partially among the promised “seed” who would take possession of the gates of Israel’s enemies.
