Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Ian, your logic amazes me with its twists. I can't bring you up on
everything. But you are certainly confused here, or else deliberately
confusing. I don't know much Ugaritic, but it is clear that `rb(t) is
cognate with the Hebrew word for "evening", whereas the Hebrew root bw' (not
bw`, if you want to be consistent) used in Amos 8:9 is the common word for
"come". Now Hebrew idioms are not necessarily the same as Ugaritic ones, and
there may be alternative idioms for the same thing, just as in English we
can say "the sun sets" and "the sun goes down". So such a cross-match of
idioms does not make the Ugaritic root `rb synonymous with the Hebrew one
bw' as you seem to be arguing. Unless you can find cases where the Hebrew or
Ugaritic `rb definitely refers to an eclipse, we can at least expect it to
have its regular meaning "evening" or "sunset". It does not help your case
at all that in a different language a different root may also refer to an
eclipse.

Of course, if you interpret neither b++ nor `rbt in the Ugaritic text as
referring to an eclipse, we are left with a problem: no-one would have
written such a text (we may presume) just to report that the sun set on a
particular day. At least we might expect that, though it would not be wise
to assume it too easily across such a wide cultural gap.

You argue for a literal understanding of "the sun was ashamed" in Isaiah
24:23.  But there must be some figure of speech here, as an inanimate object
does not have feelings. The figure may be an anthropomorphism, an
attribution of human (or possibly divine) attributes to an inanimate object;
and that is possible in the context of verse 21, if the "powers in the
heavens above" are the sun and the moon. But the rest of the chapter seems
to be a description of physically observable phenomena e.g. a severe drought
(vv.4-9), flooding and earthquakes or landslides (vv.18-20) - cast in
language which personifies the earth. Other apocalyptic passages e.g. Isaiah
13:10, Joel 2:30-31 (English), 3:3-4 (Hebrew) clearly describe the sun being
darkened. So I would conclude that that is the meaning in Isaiah 24:23,
which could be a prophecy of eclipses; and if so it could well be the
meaning of the Ugaritic text also.

The planet Mars could easily be visible at sunset, if it happened to be in
the right part of the sky, though not if it was too close to the sun - and
it would be far from its brightest if near the sun. It would of course be
even less easily visible at noon. But it would certainly be visible during a
total solar eclipse at any time of day. Anyway, since few heavenly bodies
are visible during daylight, I would surmise that "gatekeeper" refers to the
first heavenly body visible just above the spot where the sun has just set
(the "gate" through which it has "gone"), and that could certainly be Mars.

Would you care to elucidate in what way the sunset eclipse interpretation
may be considered infamous? Or what reason you may have to want to discredit
this interpretation?

Peter Kirk

----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2000 3:57 PM
Subject: Infamous Ugaritic text: an eclipse


> + indicates an emphatic (or aspirated) t
>
>
> There is a Ugaritic text (KTU 1.78) taken to contain a report of an
eclipse:
>
> b++ . ym xd+
> xyr . `rbt
> $p$ +grh
> r$p
>
> This text has a number of difficulties. The first being the significance
of
> b++. This has been related to the Hebrew b$$, "on the six(th)". (Not a
> strange connection, the Ugaritic y+tr, is Ishtar.) This would mean that
the
> text reads something like,
>
>   On the sixth, the day of the full moon of Hiyaru,
>   the sun went in with her gate-keeper Rashap.
>
> (Hiyaru is the month Iyyar. Rashap is an infernal god who may be the
planet
> Mars.)
>
> If this is an eclipse, we know that it must occur on the first day of the
> month (or the day before). It's impossible on any other day, if it is a
> lunar month. So, for the text to mean what it does above it must be a
solar
> month. I don't have enough info to say whether this was likely or not.
>
> However another translation of b++ relates the word to the Hebrew b$$ from
> bw$, to be ashamed (as in Ishbosheth) and the text becomes:
>
>   The day of the full moon of Hiyaru was shamed:
>   the sun went in with her gate-keeper Rashap.
>
> Thus the text is related to Isaiah 24:23:
>
>   The moon will be confounded, the sun ashamed
>   for the Lord of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion...
>
> and it is claimed that the fact that the sun was ashamed means that we are
> referring to an eclipse of the sun. But, looking at the other uses of
> confounded and ashamed (seemingly interchangeable in English, xpr and
bw$),
> I've seen no reason to suspect that they mean anything other than the
> literal understanding we have of them. (Can anyone elucidate on them -- is
> there a fair possibility that bw$ can mean there was an eclipse rather
than
> the more literal idea that with the presence of God, the moon will be
> confounded and the sun ashamed?)
>
> If in fact b++, which in the Ugaritic text may indicate "(be) ashamed",
> refers to an eclipse, then the text with some tweaking could be
translated:
>
>   The day of the full moon of Hiyaru was shamed
>   at sunset with her gate-keeper Rashap.
>
> Thus we have the (in)famous sunset eclipse. However, in Hebrew there is a
> very good chance that Amos 8:9 is a prophecy which includes an eclipse:
>
>   I will make the sun go in (text says: down) at noon
>
> where the word "to go in" is bw`, which is the equivalent of the Ugaritic
> `rb. The idea of the sun going in, which commonly happened at the end of
> the day can be seen in the notion of the sun going in through a door in
> heaven, represented for example in the Enochic Astronomical Book, but is
no
> means unique. "To go in" or "enter" is the normal way to refer to the sun
> setting, but it doesn't necessarily mean to set, so the translation "I
will
> make the sun go down" is in fact interpreting the text and perhaps
> misrepresenting the idea: it may, in this, indicate that the sun went in a
> door in the sky (at noon). If this is the case then there is a lot of
sense
> to mention the gate (or door)keeper, Rashap, who as the planet Mars would
> not be visible at sunset. At the same time, if the clause `rbt $p$ is a
> periphrastic time phrase, then we have nothing to suggest that there was
an
> eclipse, unless one can make a case for the sun being ashamed -- if that
is
> the correct translation of b++ -- indicating an eclipse.
>
> There have been even stranger translations of this text, including one
> which started "on the six days of the full moon of Hiyaru...", but I think
> I've covered the main ideas.
>
> I'd be interested in both any criticisms and any other information about
> eclipses and related terminology in the OT/HB.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> Ian
>
>
>
>
>
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