The Cup or Qôs?: Lost Prayer and Wordplay in Lamentations 4:21–22
The article discusses the reference to Edom at the end of Lam 4. It makes two proposals. First, it argues that we should understand nearly all of the clauses in Lam 4:21–22 as volitive expressions that convey the speaker’s wishes or prayers. Second, it argues that the Hebrew text of Lam 4:21 contain...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2022
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| In: |
Vetus Testamentum
Year: 2022, Volume: 72, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 578-593 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Edomites
/ Idumea
/ Irony
/ Wordplay
/ Quality of service (Computer networks)
/ Syntagma (linguistics)
/ Mug
/ Bible. Klagelieder 4,21-22
/ Edom (Landscape)
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament HD Early Judaism |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The article discusses the reference to Edom at the end of Lam 4. It makes two proposals. First, it argues that we should understand nearly all of the clauses in Lam 4:21–22 as volitive expressions that convey the speaker’s wishes or prayers. Second, it argues that the Hebrew text of Lam 4:21 contains a wordplay lost in the ancient Greek translation and, thus, lost in the subsequent tradition. When Lam 4:21 uses the Hebrew word כּוֹס (“cup”) together with the syntagma עבר עַל in a context of irony and concerning “Daughter Edom,” כּוֹס alludes to Qôs (קוֹס), the patron god of the Edomites and the Idumaeans. The Septuagint understood the Hebrew text’s volitive expressions as ordinary indicatives. It “quenched” the Hebrew text’s ironic pun and made an unambiguous expression of what originally was ambiguous. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5330 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Vetus Testamentum
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10078 |