Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Moshe Garsiel on Concealed Puns and Samaria being the City in Micah 6:9-16

  

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” (šwmrwnשומרון); 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)