The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

144 THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS AND THE 0. T.
(V. 2 7, VI. 14). Hence the opinion forces itself upon
445 us that verse 2 has been interpolated. Gustav Bickell
holds that we are justified in assuming this upon internal
grounds derived from the grammatical connexion as well
as from the facts involved *. Comp. my remarks on
Is. X. 9 (XXXVI. 19, XXXVII. 13 =) 2 Kings XVIII.
34; XIX. 12, 13.
14. from Hamdth as far as the brook of the plain.
Comp. 1 Kings VIII. 65 from Hamdth as far as the brooJc
of Aegypt. The current idiomatic form of the phrase
shows that we ought not to draw any conclusion from
verse 1 4 with respect to the mention of Hamath in verse 2
(see the remarks above).—As to the "people" (^iil) whom
Jahve here summons against Israel, we can only under-
stand the Assyrians to be meant by this term , though
the announcement is couched in mysterious language.
Comp. the note on chap. V. 27.
* Bickell's reasons, contained in a private communication, are
as follows. "(1) Verse 2 does not fit in to the metrical system
of Amos VI. 1— 7 (heptasyllabic distichs); (2) It breaks the gram-
matical connection (apposition) between verse 1 and verse 3 , since
D^njDu cannot possibly refer to the suffix in 3^3J}3. (3) It
does not furnish an intelligible sense either in itself or in the con-
text, since the meaning which seems to be on the surface, that the
towns are to serve as warning examples, does not harmonize with the
following question, which is moreover extremely obscure and ungrammatical
, while , to regard them as examples of states , on whom
God has bestowed fewer favours than on thankless Israel, introduces
an altogether foreign conception, which has to be for the most part
supplied in thought, and presupposes a much too tortured form of
expression. [The challenge is, according to Bickell, probably a marginal
note on the part of a reader belonging to the time of Sargon; and
the question is an unfortunate attempt to explain it, proceeding from
a gloss-writer of a much later period.] (4) The overthrow of Kalneh
and of Hamath here alluded-to we may infer from Is. X and XXXVII
had not yet taken place at the time when the Prophet Amos lived"
[This is quite right— see the text.—Schrader].