Thursday, January 27, 2022

Stefan Schorch on the Puns in Isaiah 54:8-9

  

Exegesis of Canonical Texts

 

In some instances the Hebrew prophetic books record puns that reference other authoritative texts. These (pre-)canonical texts form the frame in which the understanding of the audience should proceed, according to the author. Evidence of such a canon-exegetical function among the puns of the Hebrew prophets is attested in Isa 54:8ff. In běšeṣep qeṣep (v. 8) the hapax legomenon šeṣep most probably is a phonetic variant of šṭp “flood,” which has been created by the author of the present text in order to form the phrase šeṣep qeṣep “flood of wrath.” This norm-breaking assonance not only attracts the attention of the audience, but connects the saying with the story of Noah and the Flood, which clearly is mentioned in v. 9: kî mê Nōăḥ zō’t lî “because this is the water of Noah for me.” The sense of the connection created by the author is clear: as in the times of Noah, so all in the present is the wrath of God powerful and devasting but salutary and transitory as well. (Stefan Schorch, “Between Science and Magic: The Function and Roots of Paronomasia in the Prophetic Books of the Hebrew Bible,” in Puns and Pundits: Word Play in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Literature, ed. Scott B. Noegel [Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2000], 214, emphasis in bold added; note how this indicates that the wrath of God is [1] real, not analogical and [2] can be propitiated. For more on this, see Critique of "The Christ Who Heals")