Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT mail.usyd.edu.au>]

> Numbers 21:27-30 contains a short poem celebrating the victory of the
> Amorite King Sihon over the "first king of Moab" (v. 26). What Israelite
> would be interested in writing a thing like that? This alone suffices to
> argue for the authenticity of the poem, and for attributing it to a
> non-Israelite, Amorite source. It would have entered the Israelite
> stream of tradition only after the conquest of Sihon's kingdom,
> presumably in the latter part of the 13th century BCE. The poem
> resurfaces again in later Israelite tradition, such as Jer. 48:25 (where
> part of the Fourth Oracle of Balaam also appears).
> This was already pointed out by Menahem Haran (Diman) back in 1947.

So, then, are we positing here that there was a man called Sihon who was part 
of a race of
ancient giants, who lived in the 13th century BCE? Why could not the poem 
have a legendary
or even a mythic origin? Why must it have a source in an actual historical 
personage?

Why would an Israelite be interested in writing such a poem? Perhaps as a 
polemic against
Moabites? See Num 21:28. The poem is a traditional saying, according to Num 
21:27. The
Israelites obviously used it because it's in Numbers. So, an Israelite would 
have been
very much interested in writing such a poem if an Israelite could use it (as 
an Israelite
obviously did). It serves the purpose of the Numbers narrative.

Whether an Israelite originally composed it or not is another question. It's 
certainly
possible. I think we can be safe in saying that a Moabite didn't write it.

Best regards,
GEORGE ATHAS
 Dept of Semitic Studies,
 University of Sydney
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< gathas@ mail.usyd.edu.au >