Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Deuteronomy 33:2 as a Potential Reference to a Divine Feminine

 Deut 33:2 in the BHS reads:

 

וַיֹּאמַ֗ר יְהוָ֞ה מִסִּינַ֥י בָּא֙ וְזָרַ֤ח מִשֵּׂעִיר֙ לָ֔מוֹ הוֹפִ֙יעַ֙ מֵהַ֣ר פָּארָ֔ן וְאָתָ֖ה מֵרִבְבֹ֣ת קֹ֑דֶשׁ מִֽימִינ֕וֹ (אֵשְׁדָּת) [אֵ֥שׁ] [דָּ֖ת] לָֽמוֹ

 

There is a difference between the Ktiv and Qere readings. Robert D. Miller II, while favouring the reading אֲשׁדֹת and “mountain slopes” as the translation thereof, admits there is a plausible case to be made for a positive reference to Asherah in this verse:

 

McCarthy proposes אשׁרת with a resh, following Nyberg and Weinfeld, therefore having Yahweh accompanied by Asherah (Carmel McCarthy, “Moving in from the Margins: Issues of Text and Context in Deuteronomy,” 129-30, 132). This is supported by the fact that קֹדֶשׁ is an epithet of Asherah regularly. Thus, something like “At his right hand: Asherah, for us.” (Robert D. Miller II, Yahweh: Origin of a Desert God [Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments 284; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2021], 44)