Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

124
READING AKKADIAN PRAYERS AND HYMNS: AN INTRODUCTION
Prov 8:4–36. 2 But only a small minority of scholars believes Wisdom has the
attributes here of a full-fledged, independent goddess. 3 The so very obvious absence
of licit (or sanctioned) goddess worship in the Hebrew Bible is one of the
Bible’s most distinctive features as compared to other ancient Near Eastern religious
texts. 4
On a smaller scale, several phrases in our hymn merit comparative attention.
In line 9 Ishtar is enticingly described as having lips dripping with honey.
The same sensual idea is found in Song 4:11, where the female lover is described
as follows: ךְנוֹשׁ ֵ ְל תחַ תּ ַ בלָ חָ ו ְ שׁ ַב דּ ְ ה ָלּ ַכּ ךִיתוֹת ַ ְפ ִשׂ ה ָנ ְפֹטּ תּ ִ ת ֶפֹנ , “your lips drip pure honey,
honey and milk (lie) under your tongue.” 5 It seems rather clear that in both
cases honey functions as a sensual metaphor for the desirability of kissing feminine
lips. 6 Yet the juxtaposition of the phrase in line 9a of our hymn with the
statement in line 9b, namely, “her mouth (is) vivacity” (balāṭum, lit. “life”), suggests
that honey is more than an ancient flavored lip gloss in the hymn. Honey is
also life-sustaining; its sweetness invigorates. The same idea is expressed literally
in 1 Sam 14:24–30, the account of Jonathan disobeying his father’s oath by eating
some honey found in the field, and used metaphorically in Prov 24:13–14,
where the desirability of eating honey is used to impress upon young boys (note
ינִ ְבּ, “my son” in v. 13) the desirability of obtaining wisdom. For with wisdom, so
the proverb goes, תרֵ ָכּת ִ אֹ ל ךָתְ וָ קְ תִ ו ְ תירִ חֲ א ַ שֵׁי, “there is a future, and your hope will
not be cut off” (v. 14).
The incomparability of the goddess trope that we see in lines 21 and 23
compares to similar hymnic expressions used of Yahweh. 7 For example, in the
celebrated Song of the Sea Miriam exclaims שׁדֹקּ ֶ בּ ַ רדָּ אְ ֶנ ה ָכֹמ ָכּ י ִמ הוֹהְי ָ ם ִלאֵ ָבּ ה ָכֹמ ָכ ימִ א ֶל ֶפ ה ֵשֹׂע תלֹּהִ ת ְ הרוֹנ, ָ “Who is like you, O Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like
you, glorious in holiness? 8 Awesome in splendor, working wonders!” David and
Solomon, both kings like Ammiditana, laud Yahweh similarly with statements in
2 Sam 7:22 ( 1 Chron 17:20): ךָתֶ ָלוּז םיהלֹ ִ א ֱ ןיאֵ ו ְ ךָוֹמ ָכּ ןיא ֵ י ִכּ הוֹהְי ָ יָ נֹדא ֲ תָּ ְלדַ גּ, ָ “you are
2 Compare the first person self-praise here with the same in the Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi (see
W. G. Lambert, “The Gula Hymn of Bulluṭsa-rabi,” Or n.s. 36 [1967], 105–32, with plates VII–
XXIII for the most recent edition of the text). See also n.234 on page 59 of the general introduction
for other references to the self-praise of deities.
3 See Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 1–9: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (AB 18A;
New York: Doubleday, 2000), 334–35 for a brief overview of representative scholars and criticism
of their positions.
4 For a recent, spirited discussion of this issue (among many others), see William G. Dever, Did
God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005).
5
It should be noted that the most common word for honey in BH, שׁ ַבדּ, ְ is cognate to Akk. dišpu,
despite the metathesis of the final two consonants. See Tawil, ALCBH, 72.
6
Honey, of course, is not limited to sensual metaphors. The sweetness of honey is used in Ezek
3:3 to describe the literal taste of the divine scroll Ezekiel ate and in Ps 119:103 as the basis of
comparison to convey the surpassing sweetness of Yahweh’s word.
7
For a study of divine incomparability in the ancient Near East and the Hebrew Bible generally,
see C. J. Labuschagne, The Incomparability of Yahweh in the Old Testament (Leiden: E. J. Brill,
1966).
8 b
LXX εν αγιοις suggests םישׁוֹד ִ ְק ַבּ, “among the holy ones.” See BHS, 111, n.11 .