At times the word play on names is
hidden and lacks a basis in sound but is based more on sematic and midrashic perspicacity.
Such is the case, for example, in the story that tells of the dedication of the
bereaved mother, Rizpa, the daughter of ‘Ayah, Saul’s concubine, whose sons
were executed and hanged by the Gibeonites in revenge for Saul’s killing of
many Gideonites. Rizpa, daughter of ‘Ayah, slept at the side of the sons during
the harvest and drove off the birds and the beasts so that the corpses would
not be devoured (2 Sam 21:1-15). The particularly noble act of Rizpa, daughter
of ‘Ayah, is hinted at in the name of her father, ‘Ayah. This name appears in
the lists of birds of prey (Lev 11:14; Deut 14:13; Job 28:7). This bird is
considered quick and sharp-eyed. In the Babylonian Talmud the ‘ayyāh is
described as “standing in Babylon and sees carrion in the land of Israel”
(Julin 63:2). It is no wonder, therefore, that Rizpa, daughter of ‘Ayah, drove
off the birds of prey that hovered over the corpses of her sons. The act links
the name of the father and the content of the story.
The use of synonyms to create a
midrashic name derivation also is employed with regard to the name of Hushai,
who was close to King David and, at the time of Abshalom’s revolt, was sent to
Jerusalem by David to advise Abshalom and to foil Ahitophel’s advice. The narrator
explains the name of Hushai as derived from the root ḥ-w-š “rush.”
However, he did not actually use this root, but its synonym: māhar “hurry.”
This verb is integrated when Hushai urges the priests to quickly pass the most
vital information to David:
Then Husai told the priests Zadok
and Abiathar, . . .
“Now sent at once (měhērāh) and tell David, ‘Do not
spend the night at the fords of the wilderness . . .” (2 Sam 17:15-16)
As to the common word par ḥwš/mhr,
compare 1 Sam 20:38 and Isa 5:19. (Moshe Garsiel, “Word Play and Puns as a
Rhetorical Device in the Book of Samuel,” in Puns and Pundits: Word Play in
the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Literature, ed. Scott B. Noegel
[Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2000], 192-93, emphasis in original)
