Concealed Puns
upon Unmentioned Names of Cities
The biblical authors seem to take a
particular delight in the problem of introducing concealed MNDs for towns and
cities which they do not actually name. . . .
[1] In Mic 6:9-16 the prophet
denounces a particular city for its wrongdoing and passes on it a sentence of
destruction. While the city is not named, it would seem that in verses 15-16 we
are given a hint through an MND:
אתה תזרע ולא תקצור
אתה תדרך־זית ולא־תסוך
שׁמן
תירושׁ ולא תשׁתה־יין
ישׁתמר חקות עמרי
וכל מעשׂה בית־אחאב
You will sow, but you shall not reap;
you will tread olives,
but not anoint yourself with the oil (šmn); and the vintage
(w-tyrwš), but shall not drink the wine (tšth yyn). For
the
statues of Omri are kept (w-yštmr), and all the works of
the house of Ahab.
Does the prophet have in mind the city
of Samaria, or some other city? Opinions are divided, but I feel that the
technique of the hidden MND allows us to speak with decision. The word w-yštmr
(וישתמר) retains the consonants of “Samaria” (šwmrwn – שומרון);
and the reference to Omri, who bought the site of Samaria and founded the city
as the capital of the kingdom of Israel, and to Ahab, who brought it to greatness,
make this supposition yet more probable. “Samaria” is glossed several times in
the Bible in terms of šmr (שמר), “to keep” . . . and we may reasonably
assume that Micah is making use of this common and accepted MND. Samaria’s
consonants echo in the words šmn w-tyrwš and tšth ynn. This
further assists in the focusing of the hidden MND, while examination of the
wider context of the passage reveals that considerable prominence is given to
the consonants š and r (ש, ר), which help to make up “Samaria.”
This MND must therefore be added to the other MNDs, both explicit and
concealed, which Micah scatters so abundantly. (Moshe Garsiel, Biblical
Names: Literary Study of Midrashic
Derivations and Puns [trans. Phyllis Hackett; Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University,
1991], 151-52)
