Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

74 S. Japhet / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 36-76
התודה .D
The Hithpaʿel of ידה is found in the O.T. eleven times, four in the priestly parts
of the Pentateuch192 and the others in Ezr.-Neh., Dan. and Chr. Its meaning is
“to confess” and it is thus correctly translated in ten out of the eleven times. In
Ezr.-Neh. it is found four times in three occasions:
1) Ezr. x 1: “While Ezra prayed and made confession ‏,(כהתוודותו)‏ weeping
and casting himself down before the Lord . . .”.
2) Neh. i 6: “Confessing the sins of the people of Israel”;
3) Neh. ix 2-3: “And the Israelites separated themselves . . . and stood and
confessed ‏(ויתודו)‏ their sins and the iniquities of their fathers . . . and . . .
they made confession ‏(מתודים)‏ and worshipped the Lord their God”.
In all the three events described in the different literary portions, the confession
is explicity connected with prayer, and with external acts of mourning
such as fasting, weeping, wearing sackcloth, etc. The same type of confession
is also attested to in Dan.193
The verb התודה appears once in Chr. but its meaning is different, as is
also shown in the translation: “So the people ate the food of the festival for
seven days, sacrificing peace-offerings and giving thanks ‏(מתודים)‏ to the Lord194
(2 Chr. xxx 22).
The general context is the description of the great joy and happiness during
the festival of unleavened bread, which was celebrated in great throngs,
including the northern tribes. The parallel to ‏”מתודים“‏ is לה׳“‏ ‏”מהללים “Praised
the Lord”, a further support to the suggested meaning.
The full significance of this difference would be clarified by discussion of the
subject matter itself. In Chr. the very phenomenon of confession of sins, which
is essentially connected with consciousness of sin, is absent. It is typical of the
general atmosphere of Ezr.-Neh. and opposed to that of Chr.
חרד .E
The adj. חרד occurs altogether six times in the O.T.; it has two basic meanings:
a) trembling, be afraid of;195 b) to feel awe and reverence towards God’s word.
192) Lev. v 5; xvi 21; xxvi 40; Num. v 7.
193) Dan. ix 4, 20.
194) Ehrlich has suggested a text amendation to ‏“מודים”‏ (Randglossen VII, p. 378) but his
arguments are not convincing. It is equally probable that it was a specific semantic development
in Chr. The ancient versions testify to the interpretation of thanksgiving.
195) Which is the basic meaning of the root, cf. BDB, p. 353; KBL, p. 331.