The following comes from :
Edward L. Greenstein and
David Marcus, “The
Akkadian Inscription of Idrimi,” Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern
Society 8, no. 1 (1976): 76-77:
Oppenheim (JNES 14
[1955], 200) and Wiseman (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Supplementary
Volume [Nashville, 1976], 17) have recognized a general similarity in Idrimi to
the stories of Genesis (presumably Jacob’s flight to Haran) and David. However,
the resemblances run deeper. In fact, the narrative structure in Idrimi has
clear parallels in the stories of Jephthah and David in the Hebrew Bible. ON
the basis of these parallels it is possible to determine the meaning of this
obscure passage in the inscription of Idrimi.
The narrative structure may
be schematized as follows:
|
|
IDRIMI |
JEPTHTHAH |
DAVID |
|
The flight |
In Aleppo, my
ancestral home, a hostile [incident] occurred so that we had to flee . . . (3-4). |
They expelled Jephthah
telling him: “You shall not inherit our father’s estate” (v. 2). |
|
|
|
I set forth and
went to Canaan (18-19). |
Jephthah fled from
his brothers and settled in the land of Tob |
David set out and
fled . . . and he came to Achish King of Fath (21:11); David went out from
(Gath) and fled to the cave of Adullam (22:1). |
|
Recognition by
kinsmen |
|
|
|
|
|
When they realized that
I was their lord’s son (24-25) |
-- |
His kinsmen and his
paternal household heard (22:1) |
|
Joining the exiled
hero |
|
|
|
|
|
They gathered to me
(25-26). |
There gathered to Jephtah
social outcasts (lit., “empty men”) (v. 3) |
They went down to
him there. There assembled to him every man in trouble, every man who had a
creditor, every bitter man (22:2) |
|
Making the
fugitive/exile leader |
|
|
|
|
|
|
They said to
Jephthah: “Come to be our leader . . . for now we have returned to you . . .
and so that you will be our leader . . .” Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead
. . . “I will be your leader” (vv. 6, 8, 9; cf. 10:18). |
And he (David)
became ruler over them (v. 2). |
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