Friday, June 9, 2023

John Day on Genesis 4:7 as a reference to the Mesopotamian Demon Rābiṣu

  

In the second half of v. 7 the question is raised regarding the precise meaning and function of the word rōbēṣ and the problem why the words ‘its desire’ and ‘you must master it’ have masculine suffixes, when the word aṭṭā’t, ‘sin’ is feminine. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is aṭṭā’t masculine, so it is inadvisable to try to get round the problem by rendering ‘sin is couching at the door’, as is often done, since the word for ‘sin’ is feminine and the word rōbēṣ rendered ‘couching’ on this understanding, is masculine.

 

Nor it is advisable to take the masculine suffixes as referring to Abel, as has occasionally been done, and to render ‘His desire is for you but you must rule over him’. Such a translation is unnatural, as Abel has not been mentioned since v. 3, three verses earlier, so his sudden return here unnamed would be totally unexpected.

 

It seems to make more sense if we regard rōbēṣ as effectively a noun, more precisely a substantival participle, and translate ‘a lurker (or coucher) at the door’, so that the masculine suffixes in ‘its desire’ and ‘you must master it’ will then refer back to that. Moreover, we should then relate this word to the Mesopotamian demon called rābiṣu, which is actually attested in Akkadian texts as lurking at the door or gate.

 

We should probably render the verse as a whole as: ‘If you do good, is there not uplift? But if you do not good, sin is a lurker (or coucher) at the door’ its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.’ There is some similarity here in language to Gen. 3.16b, ‘Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you’. (John Day, “Problems in the Interpretation of the Story of Cain and Abel,” in From Creation to Abraham: Further Studies in Genesis 1-11 [Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 726; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 85-86)