Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor & Julie Peterson" <spedrson AT thesimpsons.com>]

From a synchronic perspective, I would probably reverse your emendation
(which I notice follows the suggestion in BHS that Z SN was added) and
suggest a correlation between the association made here and that found in
what seems to be the somewhat more poetically defensible statement of Deut
33:2:  " . . . from Sinai . . . from Seir . . . "  As such, it's probably
intended to refer to the theophany at the giving of the Law and everything
that entailed in the deuteronomistic sense.  But the context in Judges
doesn't quite seem to fit the pattern, does it?  Here's a battle set in the
north, and seemingly out of the blue Yahweh's procession into the fray is
cast as originating in Edom.  It's always struck me in particular how 2:1
almost portrays the angel of Yahweh as residing at Gilgal.  That may be
irrelevant to the song in chap. 5, but I'm inclined to think that it at
least rules out any consistent picture in Judges of Yahweh as either
abstractly omnipresent or residing in one particular place throughout.

All that I guess is probably peripheral at best to your question, which I
presume relates more to the diachronic question of where the reference
originated in the song or the fragment of the song in which we find it.  Do
you think it's possible that Z SN is original?  I'm just trying to think if
anything else comes to mind that associates Yahweh so closely with Edom
apart from Sinai.

Then again, maybe there's another angle from which to come at this issue.  I
don't know exactly what to make of this (if anything), but the first judge
in the cycle is Othniel, the younger brother of Caleb.  Both are identified
as sons of Kenaz.  If that is the same Kenaz listed in Gen 36:11, 15 as a
descendant of Esau, then the tradition includes heroes who were Edomite in
origin but were fully integrated into Israel.  So, if we take that as an
indication of Edomite presence within Israel (albeit associated in this case
more specifically with Judah), then we may have an opening, provided here in
the book of Judges no less, for suggesting Edomite influence on the
tradition.  I think this is getting fairly speculative, but could such
influence have extended to the development of a tradition on the part of
"Edomo-Israelites" who had adopted Yahwism, that adapted a prior notion to
Yahweh?  Of course, that would still leave the problem of how such a
tradition might have made its way into a context so far removed to the
north.

I don't know that you could get much more concrete without a significant
knowledge of Edomite religion.  And if such knowledge is available, I don't
have access to it :-)  This probably isn't terribly helpful, but maybe it
will spark some thoughts.  I hope it's not too far off the goals of the
list.  I know it tends to be broader than B-Greek, but I'm still usually
hesitant to veer too far from the language itself.

Trevor Peterson
Semitics/CUA

> -----Original Message-----
> From: barre AT nethere.com [mailto:barre AT nethere.com]
> Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 7:25 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Out of Edom
>
>
> Dear forum members,
>
> Yahweh, when you set out from Seir,
> as you trod the land of Edom,
> earth shook, the heavens quaked,
> the clouds dissolved into water.
> The mountains melted before Yahweh,
> before Yahweh, the god of Israel. (Judg 5:4-5)
>
> I am interested in what opinions people hold as to the identity
> of the event described in this text from the Song of Deborah and
> also in whatever other information may be gleaned from this passage.
>
> Thank you for your comments.
>
> L.M. Barre
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> L.M. Barre, Ph.D.
>
> Angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael
>
>
>
>
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