Thursday, September 23, 2021

Ze'ev Weisman on the Epithets for the Tribes of Issachar and Dan in Genesis 49

 

 

Epithets from the living world in the epigrams on the tribes

 

In the odes to the tribes in the Bible, animal imagery plays a central part in that the name of the tribe is accompanied by an epithet from the fauna or from the flora. This symbolizes the qualities or the state of that tribe. The assumption that the qualities or collective behavior of that tribe inhere in the eponymous name is linked to the presupposition that these qualities are innate in the members of the tribe, who are the progeny of one forefather. In some of them the epithets serve as a grip for irony regarding the behavior of the tribe, a sort of personification of it, which in conditions of crisis and war also become satire.

 

a. Issachar. In Jacob’s blessing, Issachar as the tribal name is depicted in the following epigram:

 

Issachar is a strong ass, crouching between the sheepfolds;
he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant;
so he bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a slave at forced labor
(Gen. 49:14)

 

This characterization of Issachar is obviously not complimentary. חמור נרם namely, an ass with a powerful body, which “crouches between the משפתים which are apparently the saddlebags placed on an ass’s back (Kimḥi in his commentary to this verse), is not a flattering image in the personification of the tribe, and it contains a trace of ridicule even though the name Hamor in itself has no pejorative connotation (The name amor [חמור] in itself does not represent a negative meaning, cf. Gen 34:2; like camel [גמל] it is a very common name among the Arabs). The satirical element is in the antithesis between Issachar’s intention of living leisurely and pleasantly (“he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant”) and the actual outcome: “So he bowed his shoulder to bear and became s slave at forced labor.” Issachar acquired his ease at the cost of the burden he placed on his shoulder, and therefore merits the epithet “a strong ass.” The critical political message is clear also: Issachar became enslaved to the Canaanites to return for “rest” (מנוחה), but in that way the tribe forfeited its patrimony (נחלה). This satirical “blessing,” or epigram, reflects censure of Issachar’s political condition in complete contrast to what is described in the Song of Deborah. Here the tribe wins a blessing for rallying to the call and for its special contribution to the war against the Canaanites: “The princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar was faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed forth at his heels” (Jud 5:15)

 

b. Dan. In the blessing of Moses it is said of Dan: “. . . [he] is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan” (Deut 33:22). In Garsiel’s view (Garsiel, Midrashic Names in the Bible [ramat Gan,, 1987], 48 [Hebrew]) this image is based on Dan’s inheritance in Laish (ליש) being a synonym for אריה (lion) (Jud 18:7, 14, 27, 29). Since the tribe of Dan proved a disappointment in that it did not take up arms against the Canaanites, Deborah taunts Dan through the punning use of the image of a loin’s whelp (גור): “Why did he abide with the ships?” (יגור) (Jud 5:17). The verb HEB in the Bible has two meanings, “live” and “fear,” and if the Song of Deborah intended the latter in its barb, then there is here more than a trace of derision and irony. These belong with the other satirical portrayals in the poem, such as the sketch aimed against Reuben, who remains “among the sheepfolds to hear the piping for the flocks,” while his brother-tribes are fighting the Canaanite enslaver (5:16-17); and this sketch portraying Sisera’s mother awaiting her victorious son’s return from the warm (5:28-31), which Kaufman has rightly called a “poem of ridicule and malicious joy” (Y. Kaufmann, The Book of Judges [Jerusalem 1962] 145 [Hebrew]).

 

If in these poems disguised satirical use is made of animal epithets applied to the tribes for the purpose of abuse or ridicule in connection with the set of relationships among the tribes of Israel, it may be concluded that already an early stage in the history of Israel, possibly prior to the establishment of the kingdom, satire constituted a basic feature in popular composition, and one of the characteristics of the genre known as the “oracles about the tribes” (J. Bewer, The Literature of the Old Testament [New York, 1933], 11ff.; R. Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old Testament [New York, 1948], 275ff). Even those who prefer to regard these examples as irony alone—because they refer to fraternal tribes—and not as satire (glee at the downfall of an enemy), must admit that we have to do here with political irony. (Ze'ev Weisman, Political Satire in the Bible [The Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies 32; Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1998], 11-13)