Ahab, the Son of
Kolaiah (Jer 29:21-23). In the conflict between Jeremiah and his adversaries—the
two false prophets, Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah—Jeremiah
curses them both. For the purpose of the curse he uses the name “Kolaiah” (קוליה), and makes a play
on it in various ways: “Because of them this curse (קללה) shall be used by
all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: ‘The Lord make you like Zedekiah and
Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted (קלם) on the fire’” (v 22). On the basis of phonic association
between קללה, קוליה and קלה a pejorative name
etymology is constructed here, which turns the theophoric name Kolaiah, whose
presumed meaning is קוה ליה (“hope in God”) into
the object of a curse in the name of God, involving roasting in fire. Not by
chance did the satirist chose to play on the verb שרף, which is not common
in the Bible, instead of קלה, which is usual (32:20; Deut 7:5; Josh 6:24; Jud 18:27). Moreover, the
satirical tendency of contrasting the name is also revealed in the paradoxical
use by the prophet of the stylistic formula of blessing for the purpose of a
curse: the formula “The Lord make you like . . . “ followed by a personal name
appears in the Bible in the context of blessings, for example, ‘”The Lord make
you like Ephraim and Menasseh” (Gen 48:20). This device of pejorative name
etymology is used principally by the author of Chronicles, who turns it into
his particular means for historiosophic and religious evaluation. (Ze'ev
Weisman, Political Satire in the Bible [The Society of Biblical
Literature Semeia Studies 32; Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998], 16-17)
