cheenc03a.pdf

SHAMGAR
;l~slgned to Samson.' When >re consider that the legend
(zS. 23,,/) uf Shnnunsh ben Agee, one of D,xrid's
heroes, has also been influenced bv the Samson-story,
such license would nut be surprising. Note aiso that
ail these names hegin with =v (ih-rrr). The chief object
of the insertion of Judg. 331 would be to explain the
obscure phrwe 'in the days of Shamcar ben Anath' in
But who was the true ' Shamger' (Judg. 56)? Moore
(Judger, 106) and Marquart (F>'nd. 3) have soggerted
that he may have been a Hittite king.
,, Ju dg.S
Sangarn was the name of a (Hittite) king
of Cachemiih in the time of Aiur-nasir-oal and Shalmhneser
11. Moorealsoreferr, in i1lusf;at;on of ' Sisera:
to the nurneraur Hittite names in -rim (et.. HtQrira,
WMM As. u. Esr. 332), whilst >l.larquart compares the
name Pi-~in(i), borne by the last king of Carchemish
(cp Del. Par. $70)~ and Ball' refers (for ' ben Anath 'j
to Bur-anati, the name of the king of Ywbuk whom
Shalmanerei 11. mentions as an ally of Sangnra (KB
1x5~; cp ISHBAK). The song, however, is so often
corrupt thvt the question of the names Shamgar and
Sirera needs to be re~examined in connection with a
thorough critical revirion of the text of Judg. 5. The
main historical result of such a revision appears to the
present writer ro be that the foes by whom the Israelites
were oppressed were N. Arabians, variously called leak
meelitcs. Irhmaelites, Cnshiter, Asshurires, and Kenizzifer.
and that v. 6 should run thus :
In the days of Jerahmeel son of Anak,s
In the days of Curhrm and Ishmael.
,i~w. 'Shamgar' (?), ir in fact a scribe's mixture of
iximv. and i~~rn.. and the scribe himself corrected his
error.* while N , D ~ is a corruption of the ethnic name
,I.!. ' Asrhur,' a collateral form of which was probably
,rdi. 'Geihur' (see G~saun, 2). Now perhaps we can
see how , Jabin' and ' Sirera' both appear in the story.
' Jabin' (B*, twice Jamin) ir one of the corrup,ions of
. Jerahmeel.' SO that the king of Kenaz (I)?, not iyl>),
whore capital was K.idesh[~barnea], might equally well
be called ' Jerahmeel ' and ' Asrhur.' That ' Sisera '
rcpresentr a N. Arabian ethnic name may aiso be presunled
from its occurrence in the list of the families of
on 56.
, .
J There are quite ruffisient parallels for thereand the prscsdingemendatiunr.
DU frcqurnrly springs out of hWw, =od
now dirr
4 Srnif!~?~~ (mrav IBI, irrrcar [A],
[Ll).
1 The fonres Ssntlr, rith which some have identified
BETHYLIA [ v I, h been thovgbt of by Schwan far Shamir,
but cao har&hnvc eome within Irrachar. Cp Moore, d ,~.