Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.ac.il>]

George Athas wrote:

> 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?

[JSafren] Sihon is not called aa rafa' (which you translate giant in 
accordance with the
Deuteronomic explanation - but see the lit. on Dn'il the Ugaritic rpu') in 
Numbers, Deut., or
Judges 11; Og is, as are te autochtonic, pre-Ammonite inhabitants of Ammon. 
In any case,
anyone over 155 cm would have been a giant forf the ancient Israelites.
Why posit a mythic source for the poem when neither  the poem itself nor its 
prose
superscription give any  such indication, neither in form nor content? It 
reads like a
straightforward paean of victory. No gods, no miracles, nothing out of the 
ordinary. The
"fire" and "flame" are figurative of the wrath and power of Sihon and Heshbon.
     And why can't it have its source in an actual historical personage, 
besides the
prevailing trend in Biblical scholarship to view every historical description 
in the Bible as
part of "Israel's Mythic Past"? I will be the first one to admit the 
non-historical character
of much of what is written in the Torah, but when something like this comes 
out and hits you
in the face, why ignore it? I prefer to swim against the stream in this case.

>
> 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.

[JSafren} But why heap such effusive praise on Sihon? It's the kind of praise 
one might expect
from an Israelite victory song over Israel's own victories. But notice the 
big difference. The
Israelite victory songs preserved in the Bible, such as the Song of Deborah, 
accord the
victory to YHWH. The Sihon song attributes the victory to Sihon alone, who 
has defeated "the
people of Chemosh".
As you yourself admit, the song is a traditional saying, and its inclusion in 
Numbers would
have served the Israelite historiographer very well: That selfsame Sihon who 
defeated the
first king of Moab - was in turn defeated by the israelites under YHWH's 
patronage.

>
> Whether an Israelite originally composed it or not is another question. 
> It's certainly
> possible.

[JSafren] If he did, then it's certainly a good forgery. Like the Tel Dan 
Inscription?

Sincerely,
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel