Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals
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116 D. T. Tsumura / Vetus Testamentum <strong>IOSOT</strong> (<strong>2013</strong>) 113-116<br />
from the upper arms of the sun god in some seals— stretching the meaning of<br />
yad a little.”17<br />
In the light of the above, I would like to suggest a new solution for this crux<br />
interpretum. Though C. H. Gordon accepted my oral suggestion in his article of<br />
1986,18 it has not been noticed by biblical scholars. Here I would like to present<br />
a more detailed discussion of this verse.<br />
Instead of accepting only one possiblity, namely taking qarnayim as meaning<br />
either “horns” like Albright, Hiebert,19 <strong>and</strong> Haak, symbolizing power, or<br />
“rays,” in association with a solar image like many modern translations <strong>and</strong><br />
Shupak, I would see here a play on words involving both of these two meanings<br />
for this term. D. W. Baker has also noticed the possibility of “a deliberate<br />
play on these two meanings, tying in the brilliance of God’s coming with his<br />
mighty power which is yet to be detailed”20 but he did not discuss it further. I<br />
should like to explain the entire tricolon as an example of “Janus parallelism,”21<br />
in which the term qarnayim corresponds to “brightness” (nōgah) in the first<br />
line with the meaning of “rays” <strong>and</strong> to “his power” (ʿuzzōh) in the third line with<br />
the meaning of “horns”. Thus my proposed translation would be:<br />
The brightness shall be as the light;<br />
he has rays/horns from his h<strong>and</strong>,<br />
where his power is hidden.<br />
This pattern is exactly the same as that of Song of Songs ii 12, which C. H. Gordon<br />
discussed when dealing with “Janus parallelism” for the first time in 1978.<br />
There, like here, the term zāmîr in the second line has a double function: with<br />
one meaning (“pruning”) it parallels the first line, while with the other meaning<br />
(“singing”) it parallels the third line.22<br />
17) Andersen, p. 298. See, for example, D. Collon, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient<br />
Near East (London, 1987), p. 167.<br />
18) C. H. Gordon, “ḥby, Possessor of Horns <strong>and</strong> Tail”, UF 18 (1986), p. 131.<br />
19) Hiebert, God of My Victory, p. 18.<br />
20) D. W. Baker, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah: An Introduction & Commentary (TOTC; Leicester,<br />
1988), p. 71.<br />
21) The term was coined by C. H. Gordon in 1978 <strong>and</strong> subsequently accepted by a growing number<br />
of scholars. See C. H. Gordon, “New Directions”, BASP 15 (1978), pp. 59-60; G. Rendsburg, „Janus<br />
Parallelism in Gen. 49:26”, JBL 99 (1980), pp. 291-93; D. T. Tsumura, “Janus Parallelism in Nah. 1:8”,<br />
JBL 102 (1983), pp. 109-11; S.B. Noegel, Janus Parallelism in the Book of Job. Sheffield, 1996; etc.<br />
22) Gordon, “New Directions”, pp. 59-60.