Babylonian and Hebrew Theophoric Names
Babylonian and Hebrew Theophoric Names
85
a year and a half before he could earn sufficient to pay for such
a necessary article as an ox-goad, or an axe. It is evident, therefore,
that the writer of Samuel wishes to impress upon us the extreme
oppression of the Israelites by the Philistines, and the extraordinary
pains that were taken to prevent metal tools or implements finding
their way among the Hebrew population.
It may therefore be claimed that the discoveries of archaeology
enable us to understand clearly a passage which has been a difficulty
to translators for centuries; and the generations of scribes who have
handed down the text are absolved from any charge of carelessness
or officious meddling; except that in vers(l 20 i.n'IV,n~ has usurped
the place of ij:J.-,,, and in verse 21 a false connection was made
by the insertion of !, and i, so that we ought to read 1VS1Vi
instead of 1VS1VSi, and o,~,,;,i1S instead of o,~i,;,i1Si.
"And all Israel went down to the Philistines to forge every man
his ploughshare and his 'etb:_, and his axe and his goad; and the
inducement was a payam for the ploughshares and for the 'etihim,
and three k_ille?_b/in for the axes, and to put a point on the goad; so
that in the day of battle no sword or spear was found in the hand
of the people."
By JOSEPH OFFORD.
Samu-el. Slrnmu being the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew shem and equal
to ablu (Abel) and maru.
88 BABYLONIAN A~D HEBREW THEOPHORIC NAMES.
Jacob."
' This is, practically, as spelt in 2 Kings xvi, 7, and in the Aramaic inscrip-
tion found at Zenjirli. A.V., Tiglath Pileser.
• Jer. xvi, 19, "0 Lord, my fortress and stronghold."
6 Numb. iii, 35, Zuriel; ii, 10, Elizur, "God is my Rock"; see such phrases
as "Rock like our God," 1 Sam. ii, 2 ; " The Rock that begat them," Deut.
xxxii, 18. Also N 11mb. i, 6, Zurishaddai.
7 Exod. xxxi, 2.
8 Isaiah xxxii, 2, "Shadow of a great Rock."
9 Elizaphan, "God hides," Numb. iii, 30.
BABYLONIAN .AND HEBREW THEOPHORIC NAMES. 89
one, like a bird does its tender young in a nest, hence such a name
as Itti-Bel-ginni, ""\Vith Bel is my Nest." This may, however,
mean the family is under Bel's protection. Compare also Silli-
Shamash, "Shelter of Shamash," Proc. Soc. Bibi. Art:h., 1907, p. 179.
The emotions expressed by such Hebrew names as Hoshania, 1
"The Lord heareth," Ishmael, "God hears," Jaazaniah, 2 "God
listeneth," are duplicates of a name in a Sippara tablet, 3 Isma-ilum,
"God hears," or Sin-sheme, "0 Sin, hear," whilst the expression of
Lamentations, 4 "The Lord will regard them no more," is the reverse
of that of a man's name, Bel-emuranni, "Bel has regarded me."
Although precisely similar names are not in the Biblical Hebrew,
such titles, in cuneiform, as Adad-remani, "Adad, pity me," and the
Sumerian one of Ningirsu-Nisag, "Ningirsu is gracious," are quite
reminiscent of Hebrew thought, as are Jewish ideas of the care and
mercy of God to be found in names like Atanah-ila, "I sigh after
God," Ilanu-taklak, "I trust in God," and Lihdi-ili, "May he rejoice
in God," also Adad-Milki, "Adad is my Councillor," also Ili-maliki,
"My God is my Councillor," as voiced by Isaiah (ix, 6), "His name
shall be called Councillor."
The symbolism of a rock is closely allied with that of a hill or
mountain, and both peoples delighted in terming the deity a
mountain.
The El-Shaddai of Palestine may be equated with Il-Shadde
of Babylonia. Bel Shaddua, orB el Shedia, meaning "Bel is my
Mountain," 5 is thus used as a name. Shadu in Assyrian might
mean "mount " (or lord). Bel was Shadi-rabu, " The Mighty
Mountain," like "God the Mount of my help."
Shad also, in Hebrew, meant " breast," and Gen. xlix, 25, 6
appears to play upon this fact of the word's double significance.
in an inscription, uznu rapa#um iAruguAu, "An open (wide) ear Nabu and Tasmit
huve given to me" ; see Revue Biblique, 1905, p. 53.
~ 2 Kings xxv, 23.
3 Recueil de Travaux, Vol. XXII, p. 35.
4
Lam. iv, 16, see Mai. i, 9, "The Lord will regard your persons."
0 Delaporte, Revue de l' H,:stoire des Religions, 1906, p. 47, etc. Enlil had
for title Kur-gala, "Great Mountain," Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1911, p. 81.
6 "The God of thy father . . . the .Almighty . . . shall bless thee ... with
blessings of the breast." El-Shaddai may suggest the translation, "The God of
the breasts."
90 BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW THEOPHORlC NAMES.
.A.~i-jawi of a tablet found at Taanak, but the bearer may have been an .A.ramean.
Prof. Hilprecht gives a cuneiform name in the time of Artaxerxes, .A.hi-ia-a-ma.
Gabriel, "God's Hero," is equivalent to Gubriya in Assyrian.
92 BABYLONIAN AND HEBREW THEOPHORIC NAMES.
s~'
that for chapter xlvii, 5, reads 111Sl1 rendered in our version "Most High
God." A personal name on a Hittite cuneiform tablet is Setsani-sar-tsabim,
"Setsani, Lord of Hosts," Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1907, p. 96.
2
Pere Scheil, among names found in records from Susa, gives .A.bi-ilum,
almost certainly a Canaanite.
3 The Old Testament in the Light of the Records of Babylonia and Assyria,
1st ed., p. 199. M. Thureau-Dangin and Prof. Sayce give several instances of
the name Isarlim, which is equivalent to Israel.
4
Jastrow, "Babylonian Parallels to Job," American Journal of Biblical
Literature, 1906, 179.
~ 1 Chron. viii, 4.
6 Jer. xxxviii, 6. OJ. Babylonian Abi-ili.
BABYLONIAN .A.ND HEBREW THEOPHORIC NAMES. 93
1912, p. 159.
6 Compare the peculiar Babylonian name Puni-rabi, "The mouth (of God)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES.
By JOSEPH OFFORD.
X. Notes.
In Volume XVII of The Babylonian Expedition of Pennsylvania
University, Ciineiform Texts, pp. 64-66, Dr. Hugo Radau shows
conclusively, by means of records concerning the Babylonian
monarchs Kuri-Galzu and Burna-Buriash, that the word translated
"son" from the Black Obelisk text relating to Jehu, frequently
does not mean son, or even grandson, in the ordinary sense, but
merely a descendant in the kingship. It is said that some writers
have condemned the authenticity of the parts of 2 Kings concerning
J ehu because the biblical author did not agree with the Assyrian
Annals on this point. The word used by the scribe of Shalmaneser II
on the obelisk which cuneiform translators have properly (with
1 See Cuneiform Texts, XXIX, I," Report of Plague in the City."