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עור ʿwr /ʿūr/; אדר ʾdr /ʾedder/
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I. Etymology and
Lexical Field. II. Noun “Chaff.” III. Noun “Threshing Floor.”
I. Etymology and
Lexical Field. The substantive ʿwr /ʿūr/
“chaff” may involve an Aramaic primary noun; Hebrew employs the word mōṣ. It occurs in older Aramaic only in
the vision of the colossus with clay feet in Dnl. 2:35, but Syriac also attests
it thereafter as a feminine that may be related to the Arabic ʿuwwār “dust.” The masculine noun ʾdr /ʾedder/ “threshing floor” belongs
to the same semantic field, originally a qittil-form
subsequently revocalized as /ʾeddar/. In Dnl. 2:35 it appears with /ʿūr/, but
also appears elsewhere in isolation. In any case, the exact paradigm in the
Tiberian vocalization of the plural cannot be deduced from the construct state
(ʾidderē) attested only
here.
II. Noun “Chaff.” The context of
the sole instance of ʿwr in older
Aramaic is the comparison in a dream vision of the statue pulverized with a
stone to chaff on a threshing floor in the summer (whww kʿwr mn ʾdry qyṭ). The statue of various metals, but with feet
of mixed iron and clay, symbolizes four empires with diminishing worth, the
latter weak because of a lack of internal unity, and the stone the kingdom of
God that constitutes the conclusion of history. This vision pictures the
reversal of circumstances: a single stone smatters the colossus and itself
grows into a mountain that fills the earth, while the gigantic statue collapses
into dust. The wind, however, carries the dust away, so that it cannot be found
anywhere. Thereby, all memory of the central concerns of the earthly kings who
glorify their deeds in inscriptions also vanishes. The formulation of the
comparison alludes to the summer as the time of harvest and judgment. Consequently,
secular and divine power prove to be incommensurable.
III. Noun
“Threshing Floor.” Besides Dnl. 2:35 (→ II), ʾdr “threshing floor” also appears in
debt instruments of the Neo-Assyrian period in the translation of the Akkadian
expression ina adri “on (a) threshing
floor,” which establishes where the lent grain should be returned. The word
occurs further in an early Achaemenid lease agreement (515 b.c.e.) in relation to the
transportation of grain by ass. It continues in dispute, however, whether the
Babylonian name of the twelfth month, /ʾadar/ (Feburary/March), is
etymologically related as the “month of threshing.”
Source: Holger Gzella, “עור,” Aramaic Dictionary, ed. Holger Gzella (Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament
volume 16; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018), 556–557
