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June 3, 2008
In Which I Equivocate Like About a Lion
John Hobbins has done a preliminary post on a rather famous problem in Psalm 22:17 (verse 16 in most translations). He promises a follow-up in which all problems are solved and the International Standard Version (ISV) translation is vindicated. John is correct that there is a real issue here and he outlines it quite well. Please go to John's post to get the details. The short story is that all would understand the Hebrew expression כארי to mean "like a lion" or something in that neighborhood, if it appeared without any further context. But, it is in a context a verb seems called for. Either a verb is missing or implied or some syntactical gymnastics are required or כארי must be emended in some way so that it becomes a verb. But what verb? The NRSV translates the verse makes one of these choices,
For dogs have surrounded me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and my feet have shriveled.[emphasis mine]
Without going into all the details, this translation understands כארי as כרה, "shrivel" based on Syriac and Akkadian cognates. How one gets from כארי to the verb כרה meaning "shrivel" is another abnormally interesting story. John himself is actually arguing for still a different understanding. Again, without reference to context, one might think the last clause means something such as "like a lion (are) my hands and my feet." But in context, this makes no real sense. Various efforts have been made to co-op the verb meaning "encircle" ("Like a lion they encircle my hands and my feet.") into this clause but that too seems to stretch the context and its meaning is far from clear.
Anyway, I was wondering if there were some kind of broader linguistic or cultural context that would help us understanding this strange verse. And for a while, I thought I had found something. But now I'm not so sure. There remain several important missing pieces if what I am about to suggest is usable in informing Psalm 22:17c, too many for my comfort. I post this here more for the sake of my abnormal interests than for what it may or may not say to the problem of Psalm 22:17c.
Via CAD, I ran across an Akkadian text from Sultantepe in Turkey that mentions thousands of dogs whose attack is like that of a lion. The text is from Gurney and Finkelstein, The Sultantepe Tablets, I, tablet numbers 40, 41 and 42. All three tablets seem to say nearly the same thing but all are so badly broken that even when reconstructed from all three tablets the text is still extremely lacunose. Gurney published the text in transliteration and a translation with notes in Anatolian Studies (see reference below). The text purports to be a letter from Gilgamesh to the king of some city. Gurney suggests that it may be a school practice text but he does see some evidence in the colophon on one of the tablets that might argue for something else. Not uncommonly, scribes were trained with literary texts. I believe the text on these tablets is otherwise unknown. At least it was when Gurney published it and a minimal search on my part did not reveal a version from elsewhere. Here is the section that caught my eye. The text is Gruney's, 128; the translation is mine with more than a little help from Gurney, 129.
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]
11) [i-na-an-n]a(?) al-tap-rak-ka u6-mu ṭup-pi šu-a-tu ta-mu-ru
12) [ ]x-ma a-na šadî elî(SAG) a-lik-ma itti-ka ana mâti sisēmeš-e
13) [x lim U]R.ZÍR šum/tak-ri-ṣi šá ki-ma nēši da-an ti-bu-šú-un
14) [x li]m sisē
15) 70 lim sisēmeš ṣalmūtimeš šá mi-gir-šú-nu pí-ṣu-u
11) [So now,] I have written to you: On the day when you receive this letter,
12) [. . . . . . .] and go to the high mountain (?) and take with you horses to the country
13) [ ? thousand] (some kind of) dogs, whose attack is as fierce as lions',
14) [ ? thousan]d white horses with black blazes,
15) 70 thousand black horses with white blazes,
The text proceeds to mention many thousands of mares, calves, mules and great amounts of previsions plus large numbers of other things. It is line 13 that I thought might inform Psalm 22:17c and argue for keeping the reading כארי, "like a lion." Note that the dogs' attacks are kima nēši, "like a lion."
But if one does read "like a lion" in Palm 22:17c, one still needs to find a verb for this clause or the one before it. John notes that the Targum takes care of this problem as follows: נכתין היך כאריא אידי ורגלי, "they bite like a lion my hands and feet." Maybe they knew something about the linguistic culture from which this phrase came. For what it is worth, one should note that Psalm 22:22 (verse 21 in most translations) mentions "the loin's mouth." I don't know if this increases or decreases the likelihood of "like a loin" being in verse 17. So what does this all mean? By itself, not very much. "One stone in a row does not make a wall." One distant parallel does not make an argument.
References:
Gurney, O. R. and J. J. Finkelstein, The Sultantepe Tablets, I, London: British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, 1957-64.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 3, 2008 7:41 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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Comments
First a thanks for the serious side. Second, super thanks for the wonderful typo! "the loin's mouth." (mind you, it does sound a bit rude)
Posted by: doug Chaplin at June 4, 2008 9:53 AM
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