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August 17, 2007

What do Dogs, Boys, Adult Men and Polluters Have in Common?

They all, from time to time, piss against a wall.

The other day I suggested that the Hebrew phrase מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר, "pisser against a wall," might best be understood in the context of urine divination as seen in the Assyrian Dream Book. Well, I've begun the next step in this project, a literature review. I am looking for two things in the literature. First, I want to see if my bright idea is unique and, second, I want to see the full range of other interpretive options to determine if any of them are more probable than my suggestion.

So far I have found a larger range of options than I had expected. Any such expression has several possible levels of interpretation. At the lowest level, I have not found anyone who disputes a literal meaning of "pisser against a wall" or something very close to that. But when one looks at higher levels of interpretation almost anything can passed as an acceptable interpretation.

Here are a few examples from those who have studied the expression in its various literary contexts.

"Times they are a changin'." In less than one hundred years, the interpretation at this level moved from "not a very refined description" to a euphemism for a man!

Martin Noth referred to the phrase as a "drastic expression" (For Jim West, that's drastischen Ausdruckt) and Caquot and Robert called it a "cliché." (For Jim West, that's cliché)

When we look at levels of interpretation between the literal and the literary we find another interesting set of possibilities.

Perhaps the most common interpretation is to see מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר as referring to a dog and then applied to a man pejoratively. With variations, this interpretation goes back at least to Rashi but is still very much alive today.

Then there are those who think the expression refers to those men who pee in inappropriate places. In a comment to my first post on this subject, David Maltsberger said,

Such functions are generally relegated to one's own small garden plot behind the house. Thus, he who pisses a wall is a vagrant, anti-social, and liable to be cut off from among the fellowship...

And according to Caquot and Robert, Samuel Iwry thought it refers to peeing in springs. I haven't has the opportunity to read Iwry's paper as yet but Caquot and Robert think the idea is très probable.

Another view that just will not go away is that a pisser against a wall is a young boy who hasn't learned the proper way and place to do it. Again, there are variations on this theme. Perhaps Julius Levy made the best case for this interpretation back in 1937 but Dhrome still liked it in 1956 and Caquot and Robert thought it at least possible in 1994. And then there are those who simply think מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר is a just a simple pejorative phrase for an adult man and I'm not completely sure all of these think it pejorative. See the above quotation from Birch.

A few years ago, Tyler Williams put up a very good post called "Translation Theory 101" in which he discusses מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר. He seems to prefer "dog."

So far I haven't found anyone else who relates מַשְׁתִּין בְּקִיר to urine divination and I haven't make up my mind about probabilities except that I think peeing in a spring and the idea that it refers to a young boy who doesn't know how to "cover his feet" are unlikely explanations of the phrase. I'll have more to say on this later. I also plan to post a bibliography when I finish this first round of the literature search. If you just can't wait for the detailed references to the books and papers I cited in this post, let me know and I'll send you a reference or two.

If anyone is wondering, I haven't given up on my discussion of the veterinary text from Ugarit. I will likely post some additional thoughts on it over the weekend (Monday or Tuesday at the latest).

Posted by Duane Smith at August 17, 2007 3:37 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |

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Comments

Duane,

Could this expression be a profanity? Something like "an sob"?

Claude Mariottini

Posted by: Claude Mariottini at August 23, 2007 10:19 AM

Claude,

Sure. If one takes it as indicating a dog that is then used as a metaphor for a man (i.e. sob) or as a just a pejorative expression for a man, there is a profane like quality. It could well be a profanity in its own right. As you may know by now, I do not think it is pejorative. In a previous post I outlined my positive position, but I have not as yet outlined my reasons for thinking that other views (like it being a pejorative expression of some kind) may be incorrect or at least of lower probability. Thanks for the comment. More for me to think about.

Posted by: Duane at August 23, 2007 10:42 AM

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