Honor and Shame in the Deuteronomic Covenant and the Deuteronomistic Presentation of the Davidic Covenant
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Honor and Shame in the Deuteronomic Covenant and the Deuteronomistic Presentation of the Davidic Covenant The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Jumper, James Nicholas. 2013. Honor and Shame in the Deuteronomic Covenant and the Deuteronomistic Presentation of the Davidic Covenant. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11124848 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Honor and Shame in the Deuteronomic Covenant and the Deuteronomistic Presentation of the Davidic Covenant A dissertation presented by James Nicholas Jumper to The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2013 © 2013 James Nicholas Jumper All Rights Reserved. Dissertation Adviser: Jon D. Levenson James Nicholas Jumper Honor and Shame in the Deuteronomic Covenant and the Deuteronomistic Presentation of the Davidic Covenant Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to identify the semantics of honor and shame in the Hebrew Bible and to demonstrate how these social values intersect with Israel’s fundamental social organizing principle, covenant. Though many scholars have claimed that honor and shame are pivotal values for biblical Israel and that covenant is fundamental to her conception of the divine-human relationship, no work attempting to explore the juncture of these two important social phenomena has appeared. Thus, our study has two major goals: (1) establish the semantics of honor and shame in the Hebrew Bible; and (2) demonstrate that honor and shame, however conceived in context, are pivotal to biblical Israel’s understanding of her covenantal relationship with YHWH in Deuteronomy 28 and 2 Samuel 7. With regard to Deuteronomy 28, which defines Israel’s understanding of covenantal fidelity, we show that honor is depicted as pre-eminent military and economic status among the nations and as a major goal of the covenantal blessings and designed to motivate Israel to greater loyalty (vv. 1, 13). Shame, however, is not just the loss of pre-eminent status (vv. 44, 48), but also the loss of social existence (v. 68). The explicit covenantal formulation of both values appears unique to Israel, despite her adoption of other ancient Near Eastern covenantal forms. With regard to the 2 Samuel 7, we argue YHWH honors David and Zadok with eternal royal and priestly positions because Saul and Eli failed to honor YHWH (e.g., 1 Sam 2:30), but also because David and Zadok would be loyal (e.g., 2:35). As a result, iii David will be given “a name like the name of all of the great ones of the earth” (2 Sam 7:9), denoting David’s military superiority (8:13). Moreover, we show that from a Deuteronomistic prespective, the discipline of the Davidides in 2 Samuel 7:14–15, entails royal shaming (1 Kgs 11:31). Thus, we prove that, while honor and shame are variously conceived in both covenants, they are pivotal to our understanding of the divine-human relationship in the Hebrew Bible. iv Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 1.0 The reason and purpose of this study ............................................................. 1 1.1 The justification for this study .......................................................................... 3 1.2 The biblical scholarship of honor and shame ................................................. 8 1.2.1 Psychological approaches ........................................................................... 9 1.2.2 The biblical scholarship on shame (and honor): Anthropological approaches ................................................................................................... 16 1.3 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 41 1.4 The structure of our study ............................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 2: THE VOCABULARY AND SEMANTICS OF HONOR AND SHAME ........................................................................................................................................... 51 2.0 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 51 2.1 Importance versus Unimportance (dbk versus llq, hlq, llz and hzb) ........... 55 2.1.1 Importance, high esteem, prestige, fame, high rank: dbk ...................... 56 2.1.2 Inconsequential, unimportant, insignificant, trivial: llq, hlq and hzb .. 63 2.1.3 The Lofty and the Low: Mwr and hbg versus lpv and jjv ................... 75 2.1.4 Being valuable, great and having a great or valuable name: rqy, ldg and MEv ....................................................................................................................... 84 2.1.5 Miscellaneous “Shame” Vocabulary: vwb I, Mlk, and Prj II. .................... 92 2.2 Overall summary ............................................................................................ 119 CHAPTER 3: BLESSING AND CURSE AS AN EXPRESSION OF DEUTERONOMIC COVENANTAL HONOR AND SHAME ................................................................. 121 3.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 121 3.1 The concepts of loyalty in Deuteronomic blessings and blessings .......... 124 3.1.1 The second millennium Hittite treaty model ....................................... 124 3.1.2 Assyrian vassal treaties of the first millennium ................................... 129 3.2 The place of honor and shame in the blessings and curses ...................... 132 3.2.1 Honor and blessing .................................................................................. 135 3.2.2 Excursus: Honor and the “law-grace distinction” ............................... 139 3.2.3 Shame and curse ....................................................................................... 141 3.3 Deuteronomic honor and shame in the history and life of Israel: the Ark Narrative ........................................................................................................... 147 3.4 Deuteronomic honor and shame in the history and life of Israel: a psalm of lament ................................................................................................................ 155 3.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 162 Chapter 4: Shame and Everlasting Honor in Deuteronomistic Conception of the Davidic Covenant ....................................................................................................................... 164 4.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 164 4.1 What you see is not what you get: The status exchange of the northern and southern royal and priestly houses ............................................................... 168 4.1.1 Heart, hatred and sight: The houses of Eli and Zadok ....................... 169 v 4.1.2 The Lofty and the lowly: Hannah’s song as an adumbration of the exchange in rank between the northern and southern priestly and royal houses178 4.1.3 Height and heart: The houses Saul and David .................................... 194 4.1.4 Summary .................................................................................................... 211 4.2 The Promise of an Eternal House of David and the future House of YHWH: 2 Samuel 7 (cf. 1 Chron 17) ................................................................................ 213 4.2.1 The Prolegomena to the promise: David’s gift of a temple and YHWH’s refusal (2 Sam 7:1–7 // 1 Chron 17:1–6) .................................................. 218 4.2.2 Honoring the House of David: YHWH’s counteroffer to build David an eternal House and to allow Solomon to build the deity a House (2 Sam 7:8– 17 // 1 Chron 17:7–15). .............................................................................. 227 4.2.3 David’s response thanks YHWH’s for honoring him with an eternal house: (2 Samuel 7:18–29 // 1 Chron 17:16–27) ................................................. 243 4.3 Honor and shame and the Davidic Covenant in Psalm 89 ....................... 246 4.3.1 The Sitz im Leben, unity and structure of Psalm 89 .............................. 247 4.3.2 The Hymn: Honoring and “shaming” the Deity (vv. 2–19) ............... 251 4.3.4 The Lament: The shame of the house of David (vv. 39–52) ............... 255 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS ............................... 259 5.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 259 5.1 The vocabulary and concepts of honor and