Thanks for the clarifications. I appreciate the collective scholarship.
I do have a question, though (no surprises there, I guess). The quotation by Old Hippe from the Insight book states:
"The literal reading of the ancient Hebrew in this passage is veiled in the idioms used nearly 3,500 years ago."
Am I correct in saying that one of the tenets of Higher Criticism is to take contemporary idioms into consideration when researching the Bible? If that were so, then the Watchtower here is employing Higher Criticism.
Doug