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The River Ordeal in Israelite Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

P. Kyle McCarter
P. Kyle McCarter
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. 22903
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Extract

In 1907, Édouard Dhorme first associated the term 'ēd in Gen. 2:6 with Sumerian id, “the cosmic river.” This identification accords well with the presumed Mesopotamian background to the Yahwistic creation account, and so has enjoyed wide acceptance. The term, as was quickly recognized, also occurs in Job 36:27 with similar force. That this name for the cosmic river was normally pronounced id in Akkadian as well as Sumerian is shown from syllabic spellings, so that the loan into Hebrew offers no linguistic difficulties. In the Mesopotamian materials, a primary function of id, the (divine) River, was, as is well known, to serve as judge in certain legal cases. Trial by river ordeal was a widespread phenomenon, in which the accused was plunged into the river, where his success in withstanding the rushing waters was supposed to determine his guilt or innocence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 403 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1973

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References

1 L'arbre de vérité et l'arbre de vie, RB 4 (1907), 274.Google Scholar

2 See in particular Albright, W. F., The Babylonian Matter in the Predeuteronomic Primeval History (JE) in Gen. 1–11, JBL 58 (1939), 102–03.Google Scholar The alternative identification of Hebrew 'ēd with Akkadian edū, “onrush of water,” maintained especially by Speiser, E. A. ('ed in the Story of Creation, BASOR 140 [1955], 9–11)Google Scholar, has remained plausible until now. Perhaps the present study will set the matter to rest.

3 Sachsse, E., Der jahwistische Schöpfungsbericht, ZAW 3/4 (1921), 281.Google Scholar

4 See the evidence cited in vol. 7 of CAD (1960), 8. Note also that the logogram id, which is masculine, is not to be read nāru, which is feminine.

5 Or more likely “the depths of the sea,” reading augmented by the (mi/ma) particle plus . For the expression without the particle, see Isa. 51:10.

6 In contrast to the Mesopotamian situation, the distinction between salt and sweet waters is not important in Northwest Semitic cosmologies. Hence, for example, “sea” and “river” may comprise a poetic pair.

7 The Ugaritic evidence is well known. For this and a general discussion of the cosmology in question, see Clifford, R. J., The Cosmic Mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament (Cambridge: Harvard, 1972), 35–57Google Scholar, which is based on a dissertation done under F. M. Cross and should now be seen as a corrective to the important monograph of Pope, M. H., El in the Ugaritic Texts (Leiden: Brill, 1955)CrossRefGoogle Scholar in the appropriate sections.

8 On the watery nature of the Underworld in the OT, see Pope, M. H., The Word in Job 9:31, JBL 83 (1964), 269–78.Google Scholar

9 The meaning 'ereṣ, “Underworld,” is well known. See the evidence collected by Tromp, N. J., Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Nether World in the Old Testament (Rome: PBI, 1969), 23–46.Google Scholar

10 Reading The parallelism suggests a phrase with min plus a noun, and the Syriac gives some textual support. For “defensive arguments,” see Isa. 41:21.

11 For ḥinnām, “without just or legal cause,” see 1 Sam. 19:5; 25:31; 1 Kgs. 2:31; etc. For this usage in Psalms in a similar context to that under discussion, see Pss. 35:7, 19; 109:3; 119:161; etc.

12 Cf., for example, Ps. 27:12. The term šẹqẹr describes falseness of witness or testimony as in Deut. 19:18 or Exod. 20:16.

13 Reading with Ps. 18. See Cross, F. M. and Freedman, D. N., Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (Baltimore, 1950), 285.Google Scholar

14 Cross and Freedman (ibid., 286) regard of Ps. 18 as a conflation of the ancient variants and The former seems preferable for reasons given by them.

15 This is conceded by both of the major Akkadian lexical projects: AHW, 359–60; CAD 6 (1956), 253–55.Google Scholar

16 Thus, for example, a Neo-Assyrian text published by E. Ebeling (Keilschrift texte aus Assur Religiösen Inhalts 143:6–7) is cited in CAD 6 (1956), 254–55Google Scholar as follows: ana ḫur-sa-an šû illak [… ša] illakūni É šû ina UGU šapte ša ḫur-sa-an ina libbi iša'ulušu “he (Bel) goes to the ḫ., the … to which he goes, that house (or temple) is on the bank of the place of the ḫ.-ordeal, in it they will question him.”

17 Ewice, in CTA 1.2.23 and 1.3.22 (UT ent ix:II:23, III:22).

18 Cf., however, the suggestion of Thorkild Jacobsen to R. J. Clifford (The Cosmic Mountain, 24) that the ḫuršānu, as the “rocky substratum” of the north, forces river waters into narrow, fast-running passages — hence the meaning “place of the river ordeal.” In either case, whether by this naturalistic explanation or the cosmological association suggested above, the two meanings are to be seen as related.

19 For this aspect and the cosmic waters in the OT in general, see the familiar and important study of H. G. May, Some Cosmic Connotations of mayim rabbîm, “Many Waters,” JBL 74 (1955), 9–21.Google Scholar

20 Indeed še'ôl may have meant something like “place of interrogation” originally, as suggested by the root š'l, “to ask.” In Akkadian sources, the verb ša'ālu is used of the interrogation of prisoners about to undergo the river ordeal. It is also used of the interrogation at the entrance to the Underworld (see note 16 above). The possibility of associating še'ôl with a root meaning “to ask” was already considered years ago in the controversy over the dubious Akkadian word šu'ālu, which some had equated with Hebrew 'ôl. For a summary of that discussion, see Jastrow, M., The Babylonian Term še'âlu, AJSL 14 (1898), 165–70.Google Scholar For the reasons stated above, the interpretation of še'ôl as “place of interrogation” is perhaps preferable to Ort der Ein[for]derung (Jeremias, A., Die babylonisch-assyrischen Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode [Leipzig, 1887], 109)Google Scholar or the more plausible “place of (religious) inquiry,” i.e., where an oracle may be obtained (Jastrow). For modern etymological study of 'ôl see Baumgartner, W., Zur Etymologie von sche'ôl, ThZ 2 (1946), 233.Google Scholar

21 Reading with 2 Sam. 22. See Cross and Freedman, Ancient Yahwistic Poetry, 296–97.

22 That is, to a place safe from the rushing waters of the narrows. Tromp (Primitive Conceptions, 47) argues for merḥab, “the Broad Domain, Underworld.” Hence one might read instead, “He set me forth from the Broad Place”; but the present rendering is surely more natural.

23 So BDB 15; KB 36.

24 BDB list , “be curved, bent,” and thus , “distress, calamity (under wh. one bends).” The connection with , “mist,” is listed as doubtful. The extension of “be bent” to “calamity” is not impossible, but the present proposal brings these terms together much more easily.

25 Reading rēq for MT raq.

26 LXX has ⋯ργηᵔς αὐτουᵔ for the problematic MT

27 For nîr, “(landed) property,” see Hanson, Paul D., The Song of Heshbon and David's nîr, HTR 61 (1968), 297–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 See, for example, the second “law” of the Code of Hammurabi.

29 LXX reads ὠδιᵔνες δ⋯ αὐτοὺς ἓξουσιν ⋯π⋯ ⋯ργηᵔς reflecting a Hebrew reading: “(How often) do cords seize them angrily?” Either reading is compatible with the present interpretation.

30 The common emendation of k¯mūs to kānūs here is unnecessary. There are no orthographic or palaeographic reasons for a textual error to have occurred here. Moreover, there is a well attested Semitic root kms, “to store up,” which finds a good reflex in the common Akkadian verb kamāsu. It is not surprising to find a hapax legomenon in this old (ninth century) psalm.

31 Reading with LXX in preference to MT .

32 The usual translation, “then they would have swallowed us up alive” (RSV), is incorrect. Here ḥayyîm means “the Living (Waters).” The complete expression mayim ḥayyîm refers to the cosmic waters that issue from the mountain of Yahweh (Zech. 14:8). Thus Yahweh is , “the fountain of Living Waters,” to which compare in Ps. 36:10. As noted above, these same waters are the waters of judgment. This use of ḥayyîm in the context of water ordeal finds good support in Ps. 66:9–10, describing a time when God has tested his people:

He set us in the Living Waters,
but he did not let our foot slip.
You tested us, O God.
You tried us as silver is tried.

33 The place of the river ordeal in Canaanite myth as reflected outside of the OT cannot be investigated here. That much of biblical cosmology is in fact Canaanite is well known, and further parallels are to be expected in the present case. Certainly the alternative epithet at Ugarit of Prince Sea (zubūlu yammu), namely, “Judge River” (ṯāpiṭu naharu), is suggestive and invites further study.