A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture, and Literature - enenuru

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Ugaritic <strong>Primer</strong>
adverb. In addition, remember that the final /-i/ vowel agrees with
/{azzi/, in apposition with kmtm, “death.”
2.10:14–15 hm.ntkp m{nk
/hima nitkupu ma{anaka/
Since we await your reply,
Line 14
hm. Theword hm, “if,” indicates “if we await (and you know
we do)” = “since we await.” This line indicates a situation,
}Iwridarri’s anticipation of a good answer from Pilsiya.
ntkp. One problem lies in the meaning of the word ntkp. One
might perhaps take note of the Akkadian sakaœpu, “to be at rest,
reject, repulse,” but this etymology is problematic because one
would expect a root beginning with the consonant sû and not s (see
KTU 5:14 for t > sû). Hebrew offers another possibility with a k-q
interchange; the word Pqv occurs in the Hebrew Bible some
twenty-three times in the Niphal and Hiphil forms. It generally
describes a human being looking out a window or God looking
down from heaven. The image of Judges 5:28, of Sisera’s mother
gazing out of her latticed window, looking for her son to return
home, provides a poignant, and pathetic, picture. Perhaps the
writer of our letter peers from a porthole awaiting good news to
arrive. Thus, ntkp, which occurs only here in Ugaritic, reminds one
of the challenges of interpreting these ancient documents.
Sometimes we lack the evidence necessary to reach a definitive
conclusion.
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m{nk. This noun ends with /a/ because it is in the accusative
case, indicating the object of the verb ntkp. The final element of
the word /-ka/ is a pronominal suffix. For the full range of suffixes,
see Figure 3.9.