ENCYCLOPEDIA of HEBREW LANGUAGE and LINGUISTICS Volume 3 P–Z

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS Volume 3 P–Z

General Editor Geoffrey Khan

Associate Editors Shmuel Bolokzy Steven E. Fassberg Gary A. Rendsburg Aaron D. Rubin Ora R. Schwarzwald Tamar Zewi

Volume One

Introduction ...... vii List of Contributors ...... ix Transcription Tables ...... xiii Articles A-F ...... 1

Volume Two

Transcription Tables ...... vii Articles G-O ...... 1

Volume Three

Transcription Tables ...... vii Articles P-Z ...... 1

Volume Four

Transcription Tables ...... vii Index ...... 1

© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3 60 pentateuch, linguistic layers in the semantic status (as the ending of nouns derived advantage of such a situation: a word can be from roots III-y or as the feminine ending, re-shaped to satisfy formal rhyme requirements respectively). A similar situation obtains in the without undergoing any alteration in meaning. case of the formation of infinitives from roots However, over the course of the development III-y. The standard form of such infinitives of piyyu†, this practical aim resulted in defor- lióbnot. We have already seen above mation/flexibility becoming one of its most ִל ְבנוֹת is basic, immanent characteristics, the reforming ִל ְב ֶנה that in piyyu† analogical forms such as lióbne are also possible. Furthermore, piyyu† of words eventually extending far beyond the employs ‘bare-stem’ forms of III-y infinitives: necessities of line-final rhyme. leha≠al ‘to ְל ַה ַﬠל ’,lenaqqo ‘to cleanse him ְל ַנקּוֹ raise’ (note the segholate structure). Such bare- References stem forms are also attested in piyyu† with Fleischer, Ezra. 2007. Hebrew liturgical poetry in the the final element -a: leha ala ‘to raise’. Middle Ages (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Magnes. Harshav, Benjamin. 2008. The history of Hebrew ≠ ְל ַה ֲﬠ ָלה (Alternatively, but less plausibly, such forms versification: From the Bible to modernism (in may be seen as analogical derivations from the Hebrew). Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press. Biblical Hebrew cohortative of III-y verbs of Rand, Michael. 2006. Introduction to the grammar of Hebrew poetry in Byzantine Palestine. New ε < .wë-± š≠å ‘so that I might regard’ Jersey: Gorgias ְו ֶא ְשׁ ָﬠה the type [Ps. 119.117]). Taken together, such forms ——. 2009. “More on the seder beriyot.” Jewish appear to imply free alternation in III-y infini- Studies Quarterly 16:183–209. tive endings: ø ~ -e ~ -a ~ -ot. ——. 2011. “Some fundamental features of the mor- phology of classical piyyu†” (in Hebrew). Israel— The tentative conclusions reached above Linguistic Studies in the Memory of Israel Yeivin, regarding the status of the various elements as ed. by Rafael I. (Singer) Zer and Yosef Ofer, free variants may be supported on the basis of 453–464. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Bible other, albeit rare and isolated, cases in piyyu†. Project. Yahalom, Joseph. 1985. Poetic language in the early Thus, we may find that a III-y imperfect form piyyu† (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: Magnes. appears with the final element -a instead of Yeivin, Israel. 1996. “Characteristics of the features yurßa ‘it will be desired’. of piyyu†” (in Hebrew). Studies in Hebrew and ֻי ְור ָצה :the expected -e Also, we may find a 3ms perfect form with Jewish Languages Presented to Shelomo Morag, ed. by Moshe Bar-Asher, 105–118. Jerusalem: the final element -a in place of the expected ø: Center for Jewish Languages and Literatures, .he±e™ida ‘he caused to grasp’. Alter- Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Bialik ֶה ֱא ִח ָידה nately, a 3ms perfect form of a III-y verb may be attested with the final element ø instead of Michael Rand (The Academy of the Hebrew Language) ha≠al ‘he raised’ (note the ַה ַﬠל :the expected -a segholate structure). Finally, we may find an infinitive with the final element -ot in place of leúonenot ‘to establish’. Pentateuch, Linguistic Layers ְל ְכוֹננוֹת :an expected ø The data cited above converge in pointing to in the the same conclusion—in the language of piyyu†, a number of terminal elements that, within the In modern biblical scholarship the Torah (or standard language, have a defined morpho- Pentateuch) has typically been viewed as com- logical or semantic status may be more or posed of four main sources: Yahwist (J), Elohist less freely interchanged within certain morpho- (E), Priestly (P), and Deuteronomic (D), dated, logical environments. The implication of such respectively, to the 10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th cen- a situation is that the elements are devoid of turies B.C.E. Although most scholars continue the power to signal morphological or semantic to date the Priestly source to the exilic (6th distinctions. In the terms suggested above, the century B.C.E.) or even post-exilic (5th century variation may be seen as serving the purpose B.C.E.) period, the linguistic evidence for the of deformation/flexibility. In piyyu†, within the earlier date is compelling (Hurvitz 1974, 1982, parameters outlined here, words can change and many others). Recently there have also their shape without changing their meaning. been attempts to move the date of the Yahwist The fact that the majority of the innovative source to this late period, but here, again, the forms described here are found in rhyme posi- linguistic evidence militates against this view tion points to the most immediate practical (Wright 2005). The simple fact is that there is © 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3 pentateuch, linguistic layers in the 61 not a single indicator of Late Biblical Hebrew D sources at their appropriate places (Mt. Sinai in either of these sources, both of considerable for the former, and the Moabite Plateau for the size, or in the Torah as a whole for that matter. latter), along with a series of ancient poems (see In every instance where a linguistic opposi- below). While occasional doublets (for exam- tion (of either lexical or grammatical elements) ple, the two stories of creation in Gen. 1–2) and exists between Standard (pre-exilic) and Late contradictions (for example, the different lists Biblical Hebrew, the language of the Penta- of Esau’s wives and fathers-in-law; compare teuch squares firmly with the former. Gen. 26.34, 28.9 with Gen. 36.2–3) remained, An example of a lexical feature is the word these do not detract from the validity of the sin- šèš, while Late gle narrative tradition hypothesis. This unified ֵשׁשׁ for ‘linen’: the Torah uses bùß. An example narrative approach follows upon recent literary בּוּץ Biblical Hebrew texts use of a grammatical feature is the 3mpl pronomi- and stylistic investigations into the Torah (see, .(òμ: for example, Alter 1981:131–154- -וֹת nal suffix attached to nouns ending in In addition to the more traditional arguments ֲא ָבוֹתם Standard Biblical Hebrew forms such as (dòròμåm< ‘their presented by Hurvitz and Wright (see above ָדּוֹרוֹתם ,’òμåm< ‘their fathers∫≤± generations’, etc., with the shorter suffix -åm< , for dating the Torah to the pre-exilic period, we dominate over Late Biblical Hebrew forms such now have several new approaches developed -dòròμèhÆm, by Frank Polak. He notes that Standard Bibli ֵדּוֹרוֹת ֶיהם ,òμèhÆm∫≤± ֲא ֵבוֹת ֶיהם as etc., with the longer suffix -èhÆm. These and cal Hebrew shows a greater propensity for the ָל ַקח rå< ±å< ‘see’, and ָר ָאה ,’håla< ú ‘go ָה ַלְך many more examples clearly demonstrate that verbs P and J do not belong to the exilic and/or post- låqa< ™ ‘take’, in contrast to the more frequent bò בּוֹא exilic periods. Rather, P is earlier than D (but attestations, respectively, of the verbs ,’b-w-±) ‘come בו"א see below), and J (if it is to be considered an (i.e., the qal of the root בו"א the hif ≠il of) ֵה ִביא šåma< ≠ ‘hear’, and ָשׁ ַמע independent source at all; again see below) is the earliest source of the Torah. Linguistically b-w-±) ‘bring’ in Late Biblical Hebrew (Polak speaking, then, the Torah is written by and 1997–98:158–160; note that the respective large in Standard Biblical Hebrew (for a dif- verbs correspond to related semantic fields). ferent methodology, see Young 2005; Young- Polak thus distinguishes between an ‘oral’ style Rezetko-Ehrensvärd 2009). of language and literature, utilized by a story- In this article, however, a slightly different teller who ‘went’, ‘saw’ the action, and then approach is taken. P and D are considered as ‘took’ the details home in order to weave them distinct sources, each expounding the legal and into a story, and a ‘written’ style of language cultic material in ancient Israel, with the former and literature, utilized by a chronicler who incorporating Exod. 25–40, all of Leviticus, remained in the chancery and thus by neces- and much of Numbers, and the latter compris- sity created his texts out of information ‘heard’ ing most of the book of Deuteronomy. (The from the one who ‘came’ and ‘brought’ reports question of a separate H source, or the Holi- to the court. The narrative texts of the Torah ness Code [Lev. 17–25], is not addressed here.) reflect the earlier ‘oral’ style. This does not There is no need, however, to claim that one mean that they were created orally and then source antedates the other; it is quite possible transmitted orally for generations before being that P and D coexisted throughout the monar- committed to writing at a later time, but rather chic period as competing approaches on how that the texts were created in writing from the the God of Israel should be worshipped (com- outset (the ancient Near East had a very long pare the coexisting Sadducee and Pharisee sys- tradition of writing), though in a style that rep- tems attested in the late Second Temple period). licated the manner of the oral narrator. More importantly, one should not extend P to Polak also discovered that the earlier ‘oral’ include narrative material, as in the predomi- or classical style has a higher ratio of verbs nant ‘documentary hypothesis’; nor are J and to nouns than the later ‘written’ style (Polak E to be distinguished. Instead, we posit a single 1998). It is no surprise, therefore, that the narrative tradition, stretching from Gen. 1 (the longest verse in the Bible is Esth. 8.9, dated to creation of the world) to Deut. 34 (the death of the Persian period, with 3 verbs and 31 nouns Moses). Into this single narrative tradition the (out of a total of 43 words). In comparison, final redactor of the Torah inserted the P and two verses of approximately the same length in © 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3 62 pentateuch, linguistic layers in the the Abraham story, Gen. 22.2–3, have 13 verbs Poems occasionally punctuate the Torah’s and 19 nouns (out of a total of 50 words). very lengthy prose narrative. Two long poems, In this respect, too, all narrative texts of the Exod. 15 and Deut. 32, are replete with archaic zimrå< μ ִז ְמָר ֙ת Torah (primeval history, patriarchal narratives, Hebrew forms (e.g., Exod. 15.2 the Joseph story, the Exodus, etc.) surveyed ‘song’, with the fs nominal ending -å< μ preserved; åzla< μ ‘(she) went’, with± ָ ֣א ְז ַלת by Polak reflect the earlier, classical style. This and Deut. 32.36 method was applied to narrative texts only, the 3fs ending -aμ of the suffix-conjugation not to the legal and cultic texts of P and D, form preserved) (Robertson 1972; for a con- but the overall conclusion is that the Torah trary view see Vern 2011). Snippets of poems is written in the ‘oral’ classical style, that is, also appear in Num. 21, and in a few places Standard Biblical Hebrew (with no signs of the the language is virtually incomprehensible. In later ‘written’ style characteristic of post-exilic one instance we are even told the source of the sèƒÆr mil™≥mòμ YHWH ֵ ֖ס ֶפר ִמ ְל ֲח ֣ ֹמת ְי ָ ֑הוה ,books [= Late Biblical Hebrew]). poem Yet a third distinguishing feature identified ‘the book of the wars of YHWH’ (Num. 21.14). by Polak is the simpler syntax of Standard From this reference and the archaic nature of Biblical Hebrew, characterized by short clauses the poems in general, we conclude that they with parataxis and few noun groups, versus the hark back to an older poetic tradition. In more complex syntax of Late Biblical Hebrew, fact, some scholars have reconstructed an early which has sentences with two, three, or even poetic epic tradition (on par with the Ugaritic more arguments, greater use of hypotaxis, and material; compare also Homer) which narrated frequent employment of noun groups (Polak Israel’s earliest history (crossing of the Sea 2006). As an example of the latter, one need of Reeds [Exod. 15], wandering in the desert only consider Neh. 4.1, with several subordi- [Deut. 32], etc.). At some point (during the nate clauses and a string of five nouns, repre- early monarchy?) the poetic epic was replaced senting a writing style that is not encountered by the prose narrative, though certain mate- in Standard Biblical Hebrew. rial was preserved and later incorporated into There are, to be sure, certain chapters of the the Torah’s narrative (note especially Exod. Torah with a heavy dose of Aramaic-like fea- 15 celebrating a singular event in Israel’s epic tures, which at first glance might suggest Late tradition). This development is also reflected in Biblical Hebrew (note the increased influence of several books that follow the Torah; both Josh. Aramaic over Hebrew during the Persian period 10.13 and 2 Sam. 1.19–27 are poems that inter- and beyond), but which, upon closer inspec- rupt a long prose narrative and in both cases >sèƒÆr hay-yåš< år ֵס ֶפר ַה ָיּ ָשׁר tion, may all be given a different explanation. the source is given as The relevant chapters are Gen. 24 and Gen. ‘the book of Yashar [= upright]’ (Josh. 10.13; 30–31 (the former recounts the tale of Abra- 2 Sam. 1.18). ham’s servant who traveled to Aram in order Finally, we note the poetic material incorpo- to obtain a bride for Isaac; the latter describe rated into the blessings transmitted by Jacob to the twenty years that Jacob spent with Laban in his sons (representative of the later tribes) in Aram) and Num. 22–24 (the story of Balaam, Gen. 49 and by Moses to the tribes of Israel in the Aramean prophet brought by Balaq, king of Deut. 33. The blessings concerning the north- Moab, to curse the Israelites). In the first two ern tribes are characterized by dialectal features ָ ֑גּ ֶ רם ,.cases, the narrative carries the reader to Aram representative of Israelian Hebrew, e.g and describes the events in Hebrew peppered går< Æm ‘bone’ (Gen. 49.14) in the blessing to ’šÆƒa≠ ‘bounty, abundance ֶ ֤שׁ ַפע by Aramaic-like features. In Num. 22–24 the Issachar, and words spoken by Balaam contain numerous (Deut. 33.19) in the joint blessing to Issachar lexical and grammatical features better known and Zebulun. This suggests that these short from Aramaic. These chapters, then, are not poems originated in the tribal territories them- late texts (though some scholars, to be sure, selves, and were only later incorporated into the have made this claim), but rather cases of Torah by a redactor (Rendsburg 1992, 2009). style-switching brilliantly employed by the bib- In sum, the main body of the Torah is written lical writer(s) (Rendsburg 2006; Foreigner in Standard Biblical Hebrew, which represents Speech: Biblical Hebrew; Style-Switching). the language of Judah during the monarchy

© 2013 Koninklijke Brill NV ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3 performative: biblical hebrew 63 (both early and late). A few chapters employ the action to which the statement refers. Thus, two technique known as style-switching, in order to single individuals are considered to be married create an Aramean environment. Some poems after they have heard a duly authorized official within the prose text reflect an older stratum say “I now pronounce you man and wife”. The of Hebrew and may hark back to a poetic speaker accomplishes the social transformation epic tradition. And a few passages, especially simply by making this statement. those concerning the northern tribes, contain Erwin Koschmieder coined the terminol- elements of Isrealian Hebrew. Most impor- ogy in the context of general linguistics and tantly, there are no indications of Late Biblical established the basic semantic contours of the Hebrew in the Pentateuch. phenomenon beginning in 1929. He used the term Koinzidenzfall to describe the coincid- References ing of speech and action in this particular Alter, Robert. 1981. The art of biblical narrative. context. Prior to this development, biblical New York: Basic. grammarians had recognized the phenomenon, Hurvitz, Avi. 1974. “The evidence of language in dating the Priestly Code”. Revue Biblique 81:24–56. but accounted for it merely as a subcategory of ——. 1982. A linguistic study of the relationship the perfective semantics of the verb. In other between the Priestly source and the Book of Eze- words, since the perfect tense can depict actions kiel. Paris: Gabalda. Polak, Frank. 1997–98. Temurot u-tequfot bi-lešon completed in the past with continuing influence ha-siporet ba-Miqra±. Beth Mikra 43:30–52, in the present, it seemed appropriate for speak- 142–160. ers in Biblical Hebrew dialogue to use the verb ——. 1998. “The oral and the written: Syntax, form associated with the perfect to express a stylistics and the development of biblical prose narrative”. Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern speaker’s actions in process but understood Society 26:59–105. by the speaker as already accomplished (e.g., ——. 2006. “Sociolinguistics: A key to the typology GKC §106i). But the work of linguists and phi- and the social background of Biblical Hebrew”. losophers, such as Koschmieder (1929), Austin Hebrew Studies 47:115–162. Rendsburg, Gary A. 1992. “Israelian Hebrew fea- (1946), and Benveniste (1958) laid the founda- tures in Genesis 49”. Maarav 8:161–170. tion for a new category of grammar, which was ——. 2006. “Aramaic-like features in the Penta- soon applied systematically to Biblical Hebrew. teuch”. Hebrew Studies 47:163–176. In particular, Austin’s How to Do Things With ——. 2009. “Israelian Hebrew features in Deuteron- omy 33”. Mishneh todah: Studies in Deuteronomy Words (1976) became the landmark classic and its cultural environment in honor of Jeffrey articulation of the subject, and to him one is H. Tigay, ed. by N. S. Fox et al., 167–183. Winona indebted for the term ‘performative utterance’. Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. Robertson, David A. 1972. Linguistic evidence in This innovation in the semantics of speech dating early Hebrew poetry. Missoula, Montana: acts is traceable to some degree in Bible transla- Society of Biblical Literature. tions that appeared before and after the middle Vern, Robyn. 2011. Dating Archaic Biblical Hebrew of the 20th century. One may observe in tra- poetry: A critique of the linguistic arguments. Pis- cataway, New Jersey: Gorgias. ditional English translations of Deut. 2.24, for Wright, Richard M. 2005. Linguistic evidence for the example, a focus upon the perfect tense of the pre-exilic date of the Yahwistic source. London: verb, a focus that many translations continue T. & T. Clark. to maintain: ‘I have given into your hand Young, Ian. 2005. “Biblical texts cannot be dated linguistically”. Hebrew Studies 46:341–351. Sihon . . . and his country’ (NIV; cf. KJV, RSV), Young, Ian, Robert Rezetko, and Martin Ehrens- following as a precedent the Greek perfect of värd. 2009. Linguistic dating of biblical texts. the LXX. The suffix-form of the Hebrew verb -nå< μattì) seems to encour ַָ ֣נ ַ ִ֣ ת ִתּי) vols. London: Equinox. in this passage 2 Gary A. Rendsburg age this understanding, particularly if one inter- (Rutgers University) prets this form as having a the function of a perfect. This temporal dimension, however, is modified by modern translations of Deut. 2.24 Performative: Biblical Hebrew that take into account this recent development in linguistics, such as the simple present tense of A performative statement is one whose articu- the NJPS (‘I give’), the continuous present tense lation in the appropriate context performs the of the NCV (‘I am giving you his land’), and the