Résumés
Abstract
The phrasing in Isa 19:18 מדברוֹת שׂפת כנען has proved vexing linguistically and historically. In this article, I explore previous proposals and offer support for a non-linguistic reference to the idiom based on verbal parallels elsewhere as well as cognate evidence. I conclude with further reflection on the idiom in Isa 19:18 and broader implications from this study, which includes observations about the semantics of שׂפה based on parallel uses of the lexeme in the Hebrew Bible.
Keywords:
- Book of Isaiah,
- language,
- linguistics,
- Hebrew,
- Canaan
Parties annexes
Bibliography
- Alexander, Joseph A. 1953. Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah. Repr. of The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah and the Later Prophecies of Isaiah, 1846–47. 2 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
- Arnold, Bill T., and John H. Choi JH. 2003. A Guide to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Aster, S. Z. 2015. “Isaiah 19: The ‘Burden of Egypt’ and Neo-Assyrian Imperial Policy.” JAOS 135: 453–70.
- Baden, Joel S. 2011. “The Deuteronomic Evidence for the Documentary Theory.” Pages 327‒44 in The Pentateuch: International Perspectives on Current Research. Edited by T. Dozeman, Konrad Schmid, and Baruch Schwartz. FAT 78. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Baden, Joel S. 2012. The Composition of the Pentateuch: Renewing the Documentary Hypothesis. AYBRL. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Baden, Joel S. 2013. Promise to the Patriarch. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Balogh, Csaba. 2011. Stele of YHWH in Egypt: The Prophecies of Isaiah 18–20 concerning Egypt and Cush. OtSt 60. Leiden: Brill.
- Berlejung, Angelika. 2016. “Living in the Land of Shinar: Reflections on Exile in Genesis 11:1–9?” Pages 89‒111 in The Fall of Jerusalem and the Rise of Torah. Edited by P. Dubovsky, Dominik Markl, and Jean-Pierre Sonnet. FAT 107. Tubigen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Berlin, Adele. 1994. Zephaniah. AB 25A. New York: Doubleday.
- Beuken, Wim. 2007. Jesaja 13–27. HThKAT. Freiburg: Herder.
- Blenkinsopp, Joseph. 2000. Isaiah 1–39. AB 19. New York: Doubleday.
- Blenkinsopp, Joseph. 2020. “Isaiah and the Neo-Babylonian Background.” Pages 159‒75 in The Oxford Handbook of Isaiah. Edited by Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Block, Daniel I. 1984. “The Role of Language in Ancient Israelite Perceptions of National Identity.” JBL 103: 321‒40.
- Boyd, Samuel L. 2019. “Sargon's Dūr-Šarrukīn Cylinder Inscription and Language Ideology: A Reconsideration and Connection to Genesis 11:1–9.” JNES 78: 87‒111.
- Brettler, Marc. 1983. “Promise of the Land of Israel to the Patriarchs.” Shnaton 5–6: vii–xxiv.
- Buck, Mary. 2019. The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts. Cascade Companions. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
- Conklin, Blane. 2011. Oath Formulas in Biblical Hebrew. LSAWS 5. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns.
- Cook, Paul M. 2011. A Sign and A Wonder: The Redactional Formation of Isaiah 18–20. VTSup 147. Leiden: Brill.
- Covington, James. 2019. “The Poetics of Translation in Greek Genesis and the Virtuous Plot.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.
- Dozeman, T. 2015. Joshua 1–12. AB 6B. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- George, Andrew. 2007. “Babylonian and Assyrian: A history of Akkadian.” Pages 31‒71 in Languages of Iraq: Ancient and Modern. London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq.
- Gesenius, W. 1859. Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. London: Bagster.
- Goetze, A. 1941. “Is Ugaritic a Canaanite Dialect?” Language 17: 127‒38.
- Gruen, Erich. 2020. Ethnicity in the Ancient World—Did it Matter? Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Haag, E. 1994. “‘Gesegnet sei mein Volk Ägypten.’ (Jes 19,25); ein Zeugnis alttestamentlicher Eschatalogie.” Pages 139–47 in Aspekte spätägyptischer Kultur: Festschrift für Erich Winter zum 65. Geburtstag. Edited by M. Minas and J. Zeidler. Aegyptiaca Treverensia 7. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
- Hagemeyer, F. 2021. “Melting Pot, Salad Bowl, Contact Zone? The Southern Coastal Plain of Israel/Palestine in the 5th–4th Century BCE.” Pages 95–109 in Multilingualism in Ancient Contexts: Perspectives from Ancient Near Eastern and Early Christian Contexts. Edited by Louis C. Jonker, Angelika Berlejung, and Izak Cornelius. Stellenbosch: Sun Press.
- Hess, R. 1992. “Canaan (PERSON).” Pages 828 in Vol. 1 of Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David N. Freedman. New York: Doubleday.
- Hibbard, Todd. 2015. “Isaiah 19:18: A Textual Variant in Light of the Temple of Onias in Egypt.” Pages 32‒52 in Concerning the Nations: Essays on the Oracles against the Nations in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Edited by E. K. Holt, H. C. P. Kim, and A. Mein. LHB/OTS 612. London: Bloomsbury.
- Hoftijzer, J, and K. Jongeling. 1995. Dictionary of the Northwest Semitic Inscriptions. HdO 21. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.
- Hogue, Timothy. 2022. “Enchant the Sabbath Day to Make it Holy: Conjuration and Performativity in Exodus 20:8–11.” Pages 139–57 in New Perspectives on Ritual in the Biblical World. Edited by Laura Quick and Melissa Ramos. LHB/OTS 702. New York: T & T Clark.
- Hossfeld, Frank-Lothar, and Erich Zenger. 2005. Psalms 2: Psalms 51–100. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress.
- Irsigler, H. 2002. Zefanja. HThKAT. Freiburg: Herder.
- Killebrew, Ann E., ed. 2005. The Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300–1100 B.C.E. ABS 9. Atlanta: SBL Press.
- Kitto, J. 1866. A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.
- Kooij, A. 1987. “The Old Greek of Isaiah 19:16– 25: Translation and Interpretation.” Pages 127–44 in VI Congress of the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies: Jerusalem, 1986. Edited by C. E. Cox. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
- Kreuzer, Siegfried. 2015. The Bible in Greek: Translation, Transmission, and Theology of the Septuagint. SCS 63. Atlanta: SBL Press.
- Landman, Yael. 2016. “On Lips and Tongues in Ancient Hebrew.” VT 66: 66‒77.
- Lauber, S. 2011. “‘JHWH wird sich Ägypten zu erkennen geben, und die Ägypter warden an jenem Tag JHWH erkennen.’ (Jes 19, 21) Universalismus und Heilszuversicht in Jes 19, 16–25.” ZAW 123: 368–90.
- Lee, Jongkyung. 2018. A Redactional Study of the Book of Isaiah 13–23. Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Lewis, Theodore. 2020. The Origin and Character of God: Ancient Israelite Religion through the Lens of Divinity. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Livingstone, Alasdair. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press. Malamt, A. 1960. “Hazor ‘The Head of All Those Kingdoms’.” JBL 79: 12–19.
- Milgrom, Jacob. 1976. “Profane Slaughter and a Formulaic Key to the Composition of Deuteronomy.” HUCA 47: 1‒17.
- Müller, W. W. 1963. “Altsüdarabische Beiträge zum hebräischen Lexikon.” ZAW 75: 304–16.
- Nicholson, Ernest W. 1986. God and His People: Covenant and Theology in the Old Testament. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Nissinen, Martti. 2019. Prophetic Divination: Essays in Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy. BZAW 494. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Olmo Lete, Gregorio, and J. Sanmartín. 2015. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Traditions. HdO 112. 2 vols. 3rd rev. ed. Leiden: Brill.
- Otto, Eckart. 2000. Das Deuteronomium im Pentateuch und Hexateuch: Studien zur Literaturgeschicthe von Pentateuch und Hexateuch im Lichte des Deuteronomiumrahmens. FAT 30. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Pardee, D. 1994. “Review of Weltreich und «eine Rede»: Eine neue Deutung der sogenannten Turmbaurzählung (Gen 11, 1–9) by Christoph Uehlinger.” JNES 53: 220‒21.
- Parpola, Simo, and K. Watanabe. 1988. Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. SAA 2. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press.
- Power, Cian. 2023. The Significance of Linguistic Diversity in the Hebrew Bible. FAT 2.138. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Puvaneswaran, B. 2022. Sprache in der Geschichte: Etappen der Erforschung des Biblischen Hebräisch. BZAW 540. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Rainey, Anson F. 1963. “A Canaanite at Ugarit.” IEJ 13: 43‒45.
- Roberts, J. J. M. 2015. First Isaiah. Hermeneia 19. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
- Rubin, Aaron, and J. Huehnergard. 2011. “Phyla and Waves: Models of Classification of the Semitic Languages.” Pages 259‒78 in The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Edited by S. Weninger. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Sanders, Seth L., ed. 2006. Margins of Writing, Origins of Culture. OIS 2. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
- Schipper, Bernd. 2014. “‘The City by the Sea will be a Drying Place’: Isaiah 19:1–25 in Light of Prophetic Texts from Ptolemaic Egypt.” Pages 25–56 in Monotheism in Late Prophetic and Early Apocalyptic Literature: Studies of the Sofja Kovalevskaja Research Group on Early Jewish Monotheism Vol. III. Edited by Nathan MacDonald and K. Brown. FAT 2.72. Tübigen: Mohr Siebeck.
- Schmitz, Phillip C. 1992. “Canaan (PLACE).” Pages 828‒31 in Vol. 1 of Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by David N. Freedman. New York: Doubleday.
- Schniedewind, William M. 2013. A Social History of Hebrew: Its Origins through the Rabbinic Period. AYBRL. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Smith, Mark. 2002. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
- Smith, Mark, and Elizabeth M. Bloch-Smith. 2021. Judges 1–10:5. Hermeneia. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press.
- Sommer, Benjamin. 2015. Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition. AYBRL, New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Stackert, Jeffrey. 2020. “The Wilderness Period without Generation Change: The Deuteronomic Portrait of Israel’s Forty-Year Journey.” VT 70: 696‒721.
- Stackert, Jeffrey. 2022. Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch. AYRBL. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Stager, Lawrence. 1998. “Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel.” Pages 123‒75 in The Oxford History of the Biblical World. Edited by Michael D. Coogan. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Tal, A. 2000. A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic. HdO 50. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.
- Tal, A. 2019. Tibåt Mårqe: The Ark of Marqe Edition, Translation, Commentary. SJ 92. Boston: De Gruyter.
- Tigay, J., and Adele Berlin. 2021. The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, Volume 1. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
- Tsumura, D. T. 2022. “Vertical Grammar of Parallelism in Ugaritic Poetry.” Pages 269‒81 in “Like ʾIlu Are You Wise”: Studies in Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures in Honor of Dennis G. Pardee. Edited by H. H. Hardy, Joseph Lam, and Eric D. Reymond. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization 73. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
- Uehlinger, C. 1990. Weltreich und «eine Rede»: Eine neue Deutung der sogenannten Turmbaurzählung (Gen 11, 1–9). OBO 101. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
- Ullendorff, E. 1961‒62. “Knowledge of Languages in the Old Testament.” BJRLM 44: 455‒65.
- Van der Merwe, C. H. J., J. A. Naudé, and J. H. Kroeze. 2017. A Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar. 2nd ed. New York: Bloomsbury/T & T Clark.
- Voigt, R. 1987. “The Classification of Central Semitic.” JSS 32: 1‒21.
- Waltke, B., and M. O’Connor. 1990. An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.
- Weinfeld, M. 1975. “ברית, berîth.” Pages 253‒79 in Vol.2 of Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Edited by G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
- Weinfeld, M. 1991. Deuteronomy 1–11. AB 5. New York: Doubleday.
- Westermann, Claus. 1995. Genesis 12–36. CC. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
- Westermann, Claus. 2004. Genesis. Translated by D. E. Green. New York: T & T Clark.
- Wevers, J. 1993. Notes on the Greek Text of Genesis. SCS 35. Atlanta: SBL Press.
- Wildberger, H. 1972. Jesaja. 3 vols. BKAT 10/1–10/3. Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins.
- Williamson, H. G. M. 2020. “Egypt in the Book of Isaiah.” Pages 25‒55 in Israel in Egypt: The Land of Egypt as Concept and Reality for Jews in Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period. Edited by A. Salvesen, S. Pearce, and M. Frenkel. AJEC 110. Leiden: Brill.
- Zimmerli, W. 1979. Ezekiel 1. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.