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A Hebrew Cognate of Unuššu/ʾunṯ in Is.33:8

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Delbert R. Hillers
Delbert R. Hillers
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
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Extract

Is. 33:8 is a difficult verse standing in a difficult context, but recent lines of evidence converge to make the meaning of this verse clear, and to show that we have here another instance of a newly identified Hebrew word. As it stands in the Masoretic Text, the verse reads: nāšammû mĕsillôt šābat ‘ōbēr’ ōraḥ hēpēr bĕrît mā'as ‘ārîmlō' ḥāšab’nôš. A literal rendering will serve to make the difficulties clear: “Highways are desolate. No traveller passes by. He has broken the covenant, rejected the cities. He has not regarded man.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 64 , Issue 2-3 , July 1971 , pp. 257 - 259
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1971

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References

1 After the present writer had equated ’εηôš in Is.33:8 with unuššu/’untṯ, H. B. Huffmon called his attention to the paper of Mattitiahu Tsevat delivered at the 1960 meeting of the American Oriental Society, in which he convincingly explained ’anšê in I Kg.10:15 by reference to the same terms. The present writer is grateful o t Prof. Tsevat for his kindness in supplying him with a copy of his manuscript. The present treatment of unuššu is essentially independent, however, and the writer has not attempted to discuss points of difference between his views and those of Prof. Tsevat.

2 Marti, Karl, Das Buck Jesaja, KHC (Tübingen, 1900)Google Scholar.

3 The Aramaic Suzerainty Treaty from Sefire in the Museum of Beirut, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 20 (1958), 456Google Scholar.

4 W. F. Albright noted this in a paper before the Society of Biblical Literature in 1955.

5 In a private communication, Moshe Greenberg called the writer's attention to the combination of the Piel of ḥāšab and ’nôš in Ps.144:3. But though the words occur together there, the Psalm verse does not really help in understanding Is.33:8 or prove that the rendering “man” is correct. Note that H. L. Ginsberg argues that the context of Is.33:8 demands, in place of ’nôš “man,” a word for “covenant, agreement”; see Sēfer Ḥanôk Yālôn [Henoch Yalon Jubilee Volume] (Jerusalem, 1963), 171f. I owe this reference to J. C. Greenfield.

6 See Nougayrol, Jean, Le Palais royal d'Ugarit, III (Paris, 1955), 227Google Scholar; Speiser, E. A., Akkadian Documents from Ras Shamra, Journal of the American Oriental Society 75 (1955), 162CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Loewenstamm, S., New Texts in the Language of Ugarit, (Hebrew) Tarbiz 28, no. 2 (Jan., 1959), 246f.Google Scholar; Yaron, R., Redemption of Persons in the Ancient Near East, Revue international des droits de l'antiquité, (3e. série), 6 (1959), 167)Google ScholarDietrich, M and Loretz, O., Die soziale Struktur von Alalah and Ugarit, Welt des Orients 3 (1966), 194–97Google Scholar. For the unpublished study of M. Tsevat, See note 1 above.

7 PRV II 5 (UT 1005).

8 See especially Dietrich and Loretz, loc. cit.

9 PRV III texts RS 15.89; 16.156; 16.167.

10 Cf. RS 15.42 ii 15: (DVMV) bin Mi-iṣ-ri-ya8; RS 11.787, 5 Mu-uṣ-ri-ya8.

11 See CAD s. v. ilku.