Biblical Hebrew Forum

[nachman levine <nachmanl AT juno.com>]

yochanan bitan wrote:

>with 'i' 'coast/island' and 'honorable' names like zvulun, what's 
>wrong
>with i-zevul/izevel? 'island of Honor' for the daughter of the king of 
>tyre?
>granted it may also have been punned: heb: zevel, arab: zibl //--dung. 
>(cf
>2K9.37)
>

isn't it a double pun?

The image of  iyzevel lying on the field, connects with her killing
Naboth to take his field. In the place Ahab wanted to make a green garden
(1K 21:2) Izevel now lays "like fertilizer (domen) on the face of the
field in the parcel of land at Jezreel" (2K 9:37), which plays on Jezreel
(Yizrael="God will sow") as a sown fertile field. [Casanowicz notes a pun
in Hos. 2:24-25: "And they shall answer Jezreel (Yizrael) and I will sow
her (vezeratiha) to Me in the earth".] 

As for  the honorable Abi-Zebul (daughter of the king of tyre?) from the
coast, is there something similar in 1K16.31-32 where the Sidonite
iyzevel Bat Etbaal of the Baal in the bet habaal who feeds prophets of
the Baal plays off the Sidonite baalat habayit (1Kgs 17.17) who feeds the
prophet Elijah? As Ovadyahu, Ahab's man al habayit (18.3) (iyzevel's
bayit) feeds the prophets of God and hides them --va`achbi-- (18.13) from
Achab?

Oh well . . .

Nachman Levine
NachmanL AT Juno.com
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