Monday, May 2, 2022

Yael Shemesh on the Punishment of the "privy parts" by Phinehas in Numbers 25

One of my favourite narratives in the Old Testament is that of Num 25 and Phinehas (cf. Psa 106:30-31). One reason why is that the theology of this narrative, and its reception, refutes Reformed theology (see Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness; cf. John Murray on Genesis 15:6 and Psalm 106:31). Commenting on this narrative, Yael Shemesh wrote the following:

 

Privy parts

 

After Dinah’s rape by Shechem, her brothers adopt a stratagem to facilitate avenging her honor. They demand that all the men of the town undergo circumcision as a precondition for a part between the two sides. This makes it possible for Simeon and Levi to kill all of them on the third day, “when they were sore” (Gen. xxiv 13-26). Circumcision applies to the organ with which Shechem had sinned and constitutes a sort of inverted rape performed by the brothers on the resides of the city whose prince had raped their sister.

 

We may have a case of punishment of a woman’s sexual organs in the story of Phinehas’ zealotry when he pierces Cozbi the daughter of Zur through her body (‎קֳבָתָהּ) (Num. xxv 8). Assuming that the transgression of Zimri son of Salu and Cozbi was sexual (see Num. xxxi 15-18), and that ‎קֳבָתָהּ means “her belly” (see Deut. xviii 3)—the NJPS and NRSV rendering—or even “her groin” (Jerusalem Bible)—Phinehas aims his blow at the inner organ that was implicated by Cozbi’s adultery. The Talmudic sages carry this even further and apply it to Zimri as well: “He [Phinehas] succeeded [in driving his spear] exactly through the sexual organs of the man and the woman” (The Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 82, 2 [ed. I. Epstein]). (Yael Shemesh, “Punishment of the Offending Organ in Biblical Literature,” Vetus Testamentum 55 no. 3 [July 2005]: 350)

 

Another common translation of ‎קֳבָתָהּ is “her shrine.” Based on etymology, qevah and qovah have to refer to a hollow or penetrable organ—which pretty much limits them to stomach, uterus, or vagina. Note the rendering of the ancient versions: LXX, in mêtras (= womb); Vulgate, in locis genitalibus. Clearly the choice of the owrd was dictated by the use of qubbah in the first half of the verse. (Ibid., 350 n. 30)

 

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