Northwest Semitic Collection (7 vols.)

The late Mitchell Dahood, lecturer in Northwest Semitic languages at the Pontifical Biblical Institute from 1956-1982, made numerous and often very original suggestions for interpreting the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. His proposals provoked much controversy at the time. Fifteen years after his sudden death, it seemed appropriate to consider some of them again with a view to establishing how far they may be judged plausible. It is not always possible to attain definite conclusions in these matters, but the process of learning and discovery requires summing up from time to time so that the way forward may be more clearly seen. It is hoped that this monograph will contribute to the ongoing task of interpreting the sacred text.

A thorough commentary of the Aramaic inscriptions of Sefire. This revised edition of Fitzmyer’s classic work also includes transcriptions of all three Steles, a helpful introduction, extensive bibliography, analyses of the grammar of the inscriptions, a list of the names associated with the inscriptions, several indices, and two essays entitled “The Affinity of the Sefire Inscriptions to Hittite and Assyrian Treaties” and “The Land of KTK.” Photographic reproductions of the steles are present as well.

This is the third, revised edition of the standard commentary on the Genesis Apocryphon. This edition has integrated new textual findings, in particular two columns of the text previously considered to be too fragmentary for inclusion. The commentary also evaluates recent scholarly discussion on virtually every part of the text. This edition also presents an updated reference grammar of the Aramaic of the Genesis Apocryphon and a complete glossary. In this respect the book can also serve as a solid introduction to the study of the Aramaic of Qumran.

This book ventures to close a gap in recent studies on Job. Since the discoveries of the texts at Ugarit (1929) and at Ebla (1974) hundreds of new suggestions have been made for the understanding of Job based on these texts by a number of scholars, and especially by M. Dahood. All areas of ancient Hebrew are affected: orthography, lexicography, grammar, syntax and poetic devices.

The present work attempts to present a comprehensive study with particular emphasis on the collection, summary and discussion, in one convenient place, of the many contributions which M. Dahood has made in his thirty-year long publishing career. Among the methodological principles the most important are the aims: 1) to understand the consonantal text without recourse to emendations or transposition of consonants, words, lines or verses; 2) to recover previously unrecognized mythological references or allusions, especially names and epithets of God and the forces of death; 3) to produce a literal and still sensible translation into English. After an introduction the translation is followed by notes, a bibliography and thorough indexes.

Despite their importance for Old Testament study in general and for the Book of Job in particular, Job 29-31 contain a number of recognized and unrecognized difficulties for translators and commentators. The present study proposes to use the comparative method of Northwest Semitic Philology to make these three chapters of Job more understandable. The Northwest Semitic approach, which depends on Eblaite, Ugaritic, and Phoenician for help in elucidating the text, has already proven itself a valuable tool in providing new insights into and solutions for more difficult selections of Hebrew poetry. The approach has brought to light new elements of Hebrew lexicography, grammar, syntax, style, and mythological background. This volume collects what has been done thus far on chapters 29-31 using this approach and suggests new translations for difficult verses.

The contents of this volume are as follows: 1) a new translation of and philological commentary on Job 29-31; 2) discussion of other passages in the Book of Job when a point being made in reference to chapters 29-31 is pertinent elsewhere in Job; 3) a short summary of the conclusions and possible implications of this study for the exegesis and understanding of Job’s Apology and the Book of Job as a whole; 4) and three appendices which assemble some of the more pertinent data uncovered in this study.

This study is chiefly concerned with some grammatical peculiarities which either have been discovered for the first time in Ugaritic or Phoenician and afterwards also in Hebrew, or which were already known from Hebrew, but have received renewed attention under the impulse of Northwest Semitic studies. In two sections, the study tries to shed new light on a series of passages from Job by applying these grammatical principles.

In the first section, entitled “Northwest Semitic Grammar and Hebrew,” the author gives a brief survey, with bibliography, of the grammatical phenomena in the texts from Job, which is discussed at greater length in the second section. The second section, “Northwest Semitic Grammar and Job,” deals with a series of passages from Job, one by one, following the order of the biblical texts; it applies to individual texts the grammatical principles discussed in the first part.

In the 130 years of study in the Phoenician-Punic corpus of textual material prior to this study’s publication, no comprehensive catalog of the personal names has ever been prepared. The impressive personal name studies of other Semitic tongues beg for a companion in the Phoenician-Punic area. The study presented here aims to fill that need.

Incorporating all the known published Phoenician, Punic and Neo-Punic inscriptions available at the time of this volume’s publishing, Chapter I lists the relevant bibliographies of those inscriptions. A key to the Phoenician-Punic inscriptions, utilizing publication symbols or titles of inscriptions, has been adopted for use in recording name occurrences. The second chapter catalogs the legible or restorable names listed in Hebrew alphabetic order together with reference to every occurrence. The foreign names are listed separately for convenience in locating them. Chapter III brings together the majority of those names which are homogeneous by structure or type. Finally, in Chapter IV, a glossary containing every element (with brief commentary and bibliography where possible) is given. Under each element are listed the names, including the variant and misspelled examples in which the given element occurs. Instances of vocalized names from other language sources conclude the glossary entries.