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October 17, 2008
Friday Loanword: ṣumbu
Depending on context, Akkadian ṣumbu/ṣubbu can mean "wheel" or it can mean "wagon" or "dray," a heavy wagon used to haul stuff. It may be that Akkadian borrowed the word from Elamite. Mankowski, 131, provides a discussion of the possible Elamite origin if you are abnormally interested this issue.
As we look at the loanword in Biblical Hebrew, let's start with Isaiah 66:20:
They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations as a sacrifice to YHWH, on horses, and in chariots, and in transport wagons (בַצַּבִּ֨ים), and on mules, and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says YHWH, just as the Israelites bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of YHWH.
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]
Here, the collective רֶכֶב, "chariot(s)," is clearly distinguished from צַבִּים, "transport wagons." While a few have proposed alternative explanations (see Mankowski, 131 and below), most scholars agree that Hebrew borrowed צַבִּים from Akkadian ṣumbu. On the various transformations of the Akkadian uC in Hebrew borrowings to some VC including the most common aC or āC (our צָב, for example), Mankowski, 161, says in part,
These correspondences suggest that the Akkadian u in a closed syllable was lowered somewhat, perhaps with a value midway between [o] and [ɔ], such that the vowel was spelled with the u-signs of the cuneiform syllabary (there being no separate sign for o) but sounded closer to a to Hebrew speakers.
Numbers 7:3a presents an interesting set of issues.
They brought their offerings before YHWH, six wagons (transport wagon) and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two of the leaders, and an ox for each one.
עֶגְלֹת is the most common word for wagon in Biblical Hebrew. It likely connoted (and denoted) a wheeled wagon. The root meaning is "round" or the like. Already in 1912, Gray, 76, knew both the problems with this passage and the Akkadian loan or cognate.
If צב be the same word as צבים (Is. 6620), the sing. after pl. עגלת is peculiar. The word is probably a gloss. The meaning of the word is uncertain; neither here nor in Is. does the context require "covered," nor does the etymology support such a meaning, nor the use of çumbu in Assyr.; çumbu is a draught wagon as distinguished from a narkabbi [sic?] or war chariot. [Gray used ç where we would now use ṣ]
Levine said much the same thing except that it appears the he takes the Hebrew and the Akkadain to be cognates rather than the Hebrew being a loanword from Akkadian. I seem to have lost the page number, I'll get it for anyone who might want it.
The LXX understood the phrase עֶגְלֹ֥ת צָב as αμαξας λαμπηνικας, "wagons-covered chariots" if I may be over literal. Wevers, 109, thinks λαμπηνικας is an adjective form from λαμπηνη, "a covered chariot." The LXX uses λαμπήναις to translate צַבִּים in Isaiah 66:20. On this and the various Targum renderings, see Wevers, 109.
My guess is that Gray was correct and that צָב is a gloss in Numbers. I also think the Hebrew uses an Akkadian loanword and not a cognate in both Numbers and Isaiah. One might wonder if the Old Greek translators knew the exact meaning of the word. However, loanwords themselves evolve with the receiving language; צָב may have come to mean "covered wagon" or "covered chariot" in both Numbers and Isaiah. But I doubt it. Gray's "transport wagon" seems to fit the context of both passages better than "covered chariot" even if "covered chariots" are technically different from just plain chariots. The LXX did render the loanword word as a vehiculum of some kind. But I think the translators no longer knew the technical meaning of the loanword צָב and mistakenly took it to be a covered chariot rather than an open wagon intended to haul goods from place to place.
Reference:
Levine, Baruch A., Numbers 1-20, The Anchor Bible, New York: Doubleday, 1964
Mankowski, Paul V., Akkadian Loanwords in Biblical Hebrew, Harvard Semitic Studies, 47, Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2000
Wevers, John William, Notes on the Greek Text of Numbers, Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1998
Posted by Duane Smith at October 17, 2008 8:42 PM | Read more on Hebrew Bible |
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