Language:
English
Year of publication:
2017
Titel der Quelle:
ARAM Periodical
Angaben zur Quelle:
31,1 (2017) 439-465
Keywords:
Bible. Language, style
;
Bible. Comparative studies
;
Bible History of contemporary events
;
Hapax legomenon
;
Cuneiform inscriptions, Akkadian
;
Aramaic language Dialects
;
Arameans Sources History
;
Semitic languages
Abstract:
The paper analyzes some aspects of the Suḫu battle accounts found on several copies of Neo Babylonian cuneiform tablets excavated at the Middle Euphrates area at Sūr Jarʿā in Iraq and dating from the middle of the 8th century BCE. The tablets were written by the scribes of the governor (šaknu) of the 'land of Suḫu and of the land of Mari' by the name of Ninurta-kudurrī-uṣur. They describe his victory over marauding troops of 2000 Arameans and how he mutilated their bodies. On the one hand, the battle report follows a formal structure with 'stereotyped syntagms' comparable to the twenty-nine Yahweh-war accounts in the Hebrew Bible. On the other hand, although the text is in Akkadian, it is replete with Aramaic words, hence the importance of these inscriptions providing an early witness of the Aramaic language. Several terms are here brought in relationship with corresponding ones found in biblical narratives. In particular, the Aramaic terms in these Akkadian tablets bring new light on several hapax legomena found in the Book of Ezekiel: gallābîm 'barbers' in Ezek 5.1 and sārāb: 'brier/thistle' in Ezek 2.6. A series of Aramaic terms written in syllabic cuneiform that occur in these inscriptions are analyzed: A warlord named Iâʾa (Yāʾe), the son of Balammu (m ba-la-am-mu, S.0.1002.2 i.17 m ba-li-am-mu S.0.1002.3 i.8), from the Amatu (a-mat-a-a) tribe, and the possible relationship with Balaam in Num 22.5. The names of the three wells *Makir (rare in Akkadian, 'The Irrigator' mkr), Gallābu '(Well of the) Barbers' and Suribū (Dunash 10 h CE and Rashi 1045-1105, related to Ezekiel's Hebrew/Aramaic sārab: 'brier/thistle' in Ezek 2.6, hence '(Well of the) 'Briars/Nettles'); the terms *gepen 'fruit tree'; kirû 'orchard', being both Akkadian and Aramaic; the rare usage of the verb naṭalu; ni-iq-bu-ú-nu 'the waters we gathered' related to Syriac qbo; *kneśśet designates the assembled men in charge of erecting a military post in the steppe corresponding to kinaltu in the Babylonian version; gudūdu (cf. the Aramean armed bands g e dûdîm in Elisha cycle in 2 Kgs 5.2; 6.23, and of the Moabites 2 Kgs 13.23).
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