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  • From: ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben Crick)
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: b(l xmh in Nahum 1:2
  • Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 17:39:06 +0000


On Sat 1 Jan 2000 (13:35:31), c.s.bartholomew AT worldnet.att.net wrote:
> Is it possible that our Prophet might have introduced intentional
> polysemy with the word b(l? Given that b(l crops up here in a cosmic
> combat context it is tempting to discover here something more than the
> sense "owner or possessor." Can anyone give me reasons why this
> temptation should be resisted?

Dear Clayton

Here we have a simple construct relationship, Ba`aL CeMaH, "lord of
fury". But it is an adverbial phrase here, qualifying W:NoQeM YHWH,
NoQeM YHWH, and the LORD is avenging, the LORD is avenging [how is He
avenging?] uWBa`aL CeMaH NoQeM YHWH "even full of fury YHWH is avenging"
etc. The word Ba`aL does not always signify some hostile occult power
or Canaanite god; although "Belial" is mentioned in verse 11 as the evil
intelligence driving the Ninevites.

There is a similar construction in Isaiah 41:15, HiNNeH &aM:TiYK: L:MoWRaG
CaRuTs CaDa$ *Ba`aL PiYPiYYoWT* "Behold I will make you a new sharp
threshing-sledge *full of teeth* ["lord-of teeth"]".

The context indicates earthly combat. Nahum is announcing that Nineveh
(pars pro toto, Assyria as a whole) will be punished for exceeding her
mandate to punish the northern kingdom of Israel by Sennacherib and
Asshurbanipal in 720 BCE when 185,000 perished in one night (2 Kings 19:35).
Nineveh was captured in 616 BCE, and then totally destroyed by a volcano
in 612; Jonah's intervention only resulted in a temporary reprieve. From
Carchemish (605 BCE) onwards, the Chaldaeans (Babylonians) were to rule;
"that bitter and hasty nation" (Habakkuk 1:6).

Shalom,
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick, BA CF
<ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm







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