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More on Metathetic ParallelismAuthor(s): Wilfred G. E. WatsonSource: Die Welt des Orients, Bd. 19 (1988), pp. 40-44Published by: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25683288
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More
on
Metathetic
Parallelism
By Wilfred G. E. Watson, Newcastle upon Tyne
The
type
of
parallelism
considered
briefly
here is
"Metathetic
Parallel
ism",
first
identified
by
N.
Bronznick
in
several
Hebrew
texts.1)
It
is
a
form
of
synonymous
parallelism
where
the
corresponding objects
and
predicates
are
transposed.
For
example,
in
Ps.35,7
ky
"For
hnm
tmnw
ly
sht
secretly
they
hid
a
pit
for
me,
rstm hnm hprw Inpsy their net they secretly dug for
my
person"
it
is
evident
that
the
terms
sahat,
"pit",
and
reset,
"net"
only
make
sense
if
they
are
interchanged
(nets
are
not
dug;
cf.
v.
8 "let the
net
which
they
hid
ensnare
them").
The
switch
is
not
actually
effected but
the
sentence
is
read
as
if
ithad been
and
only
then
does
the
couplet
become
intelligible.
This
type
of
implied
transposition
within
a
line
or
couplet
Bronznick
aptly named metathetic parallelism.2) The present note provides fur
ther
confirmation
for
his
proposal.
We
can
begin
with
a
simple
from
of
such
implied
metathesis
in
Hos.
13,12b,
an
example
not
mentioned
by
Bronznick:
zbhy
^dm
eglym
ysqwn
"sacrificing
men,
they
kiss
calves."
P.Mosca
would
see
this
line
as
ironic:
"These
people
have
everything
backwards.
Instead
of
kissing
human
beings
and
sacrificing
calves,
the
fools
have
reversed
the
process ".3)
J)
N.M.
Bronznick,
'Metathetic
Parallelism':
-
An
Unrecognized
Subtype
of
Synon
ymous
Parallelism,
Hebrew
Annual
Review
(= HAR)
3
(1979)
25-39.
2)
The
examples
discussed
by
Bronznick
are
Jes.
17,5;
22,3; 29,3,5;
49,25;
54,14;
55,5;
Am.
6,11; 8,12;
Mic.
2,1;
Pss.
25,14;
50,19;
90,9; 105,18;
Prv.
18,15;
Job
13,25;
30,17; 38,30;
In
a
footnote,
HAR
3
(1979)
36
n.3,
he refers
to
Jer.
8,15;
Am.
5,21;
Pss.
23,5; 56,13;
74,19;
Job
6,11
and
13,26.
Not
all these
are
convincing.
He
also
gives
an
example
from
an
Amidah
prayer.
3)
P.
Mosca,
Child Sacrifice
in
Canaanite
and Israelite
Religion:
A
Study
in
Mulk
and mlk, Harvard, 1975, 258 n. 155 (unavailable to me but cited by G.C.Heider, The
Cult
of
Molek.
A
Reassessment
[Sheffield,
1985]
312
n.617).
A.R.W.Green,
The
Role
of
Human Sacrifice
in theAncient
Near East
(Missoula
1975)
172-173
discusses
the
problems
of
Hos.
13,2
and
though
he
can
provide
no
solution,
concludes:
"there
is
no
doubt
that Hosea
is
talking
about
something
terrible
and
sacrilegious
in
the
first
crisis
Welt
des Orients
19,
40-44,
ISSN 0043-2547
?
Vandenhoeck
&
Ruprecht
1989
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More
on
Metathetic
Parallelism
41
Another additional
example,
this
time
of
metathetic
parallelism,
is
Hab.
3,8b:
ky trkb rl-swsyk "when you mounted your
horses,
mrkbtyk
ysw'h
your
chariots
of
victory".
In
his
recent
study
of
Hab.3,
Hiebert
comments: "P.
Humbert,
suggesting
that
it is
customary
for the warrior
in
the ancient
Near East
tomount
his
chariot rather
than the horses
that
draw
it,
reverses
the order of the
paral
lel
pair
swsyk/mrkbtyk.
He
has
some
support
for his
position
in
that Barb
(i.
e.
Codex
Barberini)
appears
to
reflect this
same
reversal. But
all
other
versions
support
the
MT.
The
usual
sequence
of
the
parallel pair swsym/
mrkbh in
biblical
poetry
favors
the order
here...
as
does the
meter...
It
is
best
to
understand this bicolon
as
containing
'imagistic
parallelism'
in
which the
poet
does
not
seek
to
refer
to two
separate
acts
but
a
single
act
described with
two
related
images".4)
It
is
possible,
instead,
that
Humbert's
suggestion
of
reversing
the
components
of
the
word
pair
is
correct
if
understood
as a
form
of metathetic
parallelism.
Although
Bronznick
only
discussed Hebrew
passages,
metathetic
par
allelism
is also found
in
texts
outside Hebrew. One
occurrence
is in
an
Akkadian su.il.la prayer:5)
napluski
tasmu
qibTtki
nuru
"Your
glance
is
favourable
hear
ing,
your
word,
light."
In
his
study
of this
poem,
Sperling
commented: "the
poet
has
effected
a
chiastic
transfer
of
properties
between
the
faculties of
seeing
and
hear
ing."6)
He added: "A
lesser
poet
would have
preferred
'Your
glance
is
light,
Your word
is
light'."7)
In
fact,
this
is
an
example
of
metathetic
par
allelism
(although
Sperling
did
not
use
that
description)
and
the line is
intended to be understood as:
"Your
glance
is
light,
your
word is
favourable
hearing."
It
would
seem
that
this
sequence
was
adopted
so
that the first
part
of the
line
(especially
tasmu)
could
be
linked
with
the
end of
the
preceding
line
of
the
north
Kingdom.
Within
this
context
human sacrifice
may
well
have
been
intended."
(I
owe
this
last
reference
to
Prof.
W.
Rollig).
For
yet
another
solution
cf.
F.
I.Andersen/D. N. Freedman, Hosea (Garden
City 1980)
632. Another
example
may be
Job
16,6.
4)
T.
Hiebert,
God
of
my
Victory.
The Ancient
Hymn
in
Habakkuk
3
(Atlanta
1986)
24
n.32.
5)
Discussed
most
recently by
S.
D.
Sperling,
A
su-il-la
to
Istar
(Ebeling,
Handerhe
bung 60),
WO
12
(1981)
8-20.
6)
Sperling,
WO
12
(1981)
18.
7)
Sperling,
WO
12
(1981)
20.
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7/23/2019 Watson (1988) More on Metathetic Parallelism
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42
Wilfred
G.E.Watson
(rev.
20):
ki tabu
suppuki
ki
qerub
nesmuki
(variant:
semuki),
"How
sweet
are
prayers
to
you
How
near
is
your
favour "8)
Another, less certain example
-
less certain
because
it
occurs
on
a
seal,
a
material
on
which
mistakes
were
common
-
is:
dumu.gisidingiri.am
"son
of
two-thirds
man
and
one
third
god."9)
This
would
appear
to
invert
the
well-known
description
of
Gilgamesh
(as
in
GE
I
ii
1
and
elsewhere):
sittinsu
ilu-ma
sullultasu
amelutu
"he
was
one-third
god
and
two
thirds
man."
Most
probably,
however,
the
inscription
on
the
seal
is incorrect.
An
intermediate
stage
is
represented
by
a
line
from
an
Old
Babylonian
prayer
recently
studied
by
B.Groneberg.10)
It
runs:
burmi-inlja
dimatum
"The
iris of
my
eyes
weeps,
izannun
parsdt
the
tears
are
flowing."11)
Groneberg
comments:
?Ich
nehme
an,
daB
sich
das
Verb
izannun
auf
burminTja
bezieht
und
parsdt
auf
dimatum."12)
This
can
be
represented
schematically as:
burmi-Tmja
dimatum
izannun
parsdt
a
a'
b
b'
where
the metathesis
aa'
// bb'
marks
the
transition
between
parallelism
8)
Such
linking
occurs
elsewhere
and
may
explain
the
curious
word
order
in
the
Des
cent
of
Istar,
(Bab.)
2-3:
dIstar marat dStn uzunsa [iskun]
iskunma
marat
dSin
uzu[nsa]
"Istar,
Sin's
daughter,
set
her
mind,
yes,
set Sin's
daughter
her
mind."
E.
Reiner,
Your
thwarts
in
pieces,
Your
mooring
rope
cut.
Poetry
from
Babylonia
and
Assyria
(Michigan
1985)
31-32
comments:
"In
other
poems,
such
pairs
of
lines
are
usually
built
on
the
same
pattern,
and
in
fact
are
identical
but
for
the
fact
that
the
sec
ond
of
the
pair
adds
the
hero's
name
...
Here this
poetic
convention
is
reversed
...
The
inversion,
by
placing
the
verb
first,
also
gives
syntactic
prominence
to
the
predicate
which
in the
first
line
stands
...
at
the
end
of
the
sentence,"
but makes
no
reference
to
the
linkage
so effected.
9)
H.Limet,
Les
legendes
des
sceaux cassites
(Brussels
1971)
108-109.
10)
B.Groneberg,
Eine
Einfiihrungsszene
in
der
altbabyblonischen
Literatur:
Bemer
kungen
zum
personlichen
Gott,
in:
K.Hecker/W.Sommerfeld,
Keilschriftliche
Litera
turen
=
CRRAI
XXXII,
Berlin
1986)
93-108.
The
text
s
IM
58424.
n)
IM 58424:
18.
According
to
Groneberg,
Einfiihrungsszene,
102,
burmTmja
is
a
sandhi
spelling
of
burmi-Tmja.
12)
Groneberg,
Einfiihrungsszene,
102.
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43
of the
type
ab
//
a'b'
(alternating
parallelism)13)
and true
metathetic
par
allelism,
ab'
//
a'b.
A
related
form
is the chiastic
patterning
in BAM
No.214
II 10-11:
dsamas
dayyan
same u
ersetim
dayydn
miti
u
balati
attama
"O
Shamash,
the
judge
of
the heavens and the
netherworld,
the
judge
of the dead
and the
living
are
you."14)
The
expected
sequence
to
match
same u
ersetim
would be
balati
u
miti.
Finally,
the
strange Babylonian extispicy
BRM
4
12:26
may
be
yet
another
illustration
of
metathetic
parallelism:
asar
(KI)
mw//(BAD)
iballut
asar
balati imdt
"(if it is in) the area of death, he will getwell, (if in) the area of life,
he
will
die."15)
The
Ugaritic
texts
provide
us
with
a
particularly
clear
example.
It is the
formulaic
phrase
rgm's
wlhst
abn
(KTU
1.3
III 22 f. and
par.)
conventionally
translated
"a
tale
of
trees
and
a
whisper
of
stones."16)
In
point
of
fact,
the
imagery
here
is of the
wind
rustling
the
leaves of the
tress
and
making
them
whisper.17)
In
addition,
Ug.
rgm
is
equivalent
to
Akkadian rigmu, which denotes a loud noise (AHw. 982-983 a). If the
components
of
this
line
are
actually
in
metathetic
parallelism (as
*lhst's
wrgm
abn)
then the
more
natural and
expected
translation
would be:
"a
whisper
of
trees
and
the noise
of
stones".
It is
possible
that
rgm
was
placed
first
in
the line
in
order
to
match the
two
neighbouring
lines both of which
also
begin
with
rgm: rgm
it
ly
13)
For
a
possible
origin
in
alternating
parallelism
cf.
Bronznick,
HAR
3
(1979)
37.
On alternating parallelism cf. J.T.Willis, Alternating (ABA'B') Parallelism in the Old
Testament
Psalms and
Prophetic
Literature,
in:
E.Follis,
ed.,
Directions
in
Biblical
Hebrew
Poetry (Sheffield
1987)
49-76
and
E.Zurro,
Procedimientos
iterativos
en
la
poesia
ugaritica
y
hebrea
(Rome 1987)
218-239.
14)
Text:
T.Abusch,
HTR 80
(1987)
27.
15)
Parallel:
K
9513
(unpublished),
cf.
R.
Borger,
HKL
II,
34.
For the translation
see
CAD M2
317b.
16)
So
Gibson,
CML2,
49. Here rs
and
'bn
are
probably
collective
nouns.
Similarly,
"Es
un
asunto
de madera
y
una
charla
de
piedra,"
G.
del Olmo
Lete,
MLC,
184;
"la
parola
dell'albero
e
il
mormorio
della
pietra,"
P.Xella,
Gli
antenati
di
Dio
(Verona
1982) 101; also,M. A. Korpel/J.C. deMoor, UF 18 (1986) 205.
17)
According
to
Gibson, CML,
49
n.4,
this line
refers
"simply
to
the
action
of
the
wind,
picturesquely represented
as
the
conversation of the
various natural
phenom
ena."
Comparable
is
KTU
1.82:43
krsm.
Ittn. kabnm.
th( )ggn,
"if
the
trees
do
not
mur
mur,
if
the
stones
make
no
sound." The
subject
of the
verb
hgg
is
"trees"
and
of
ytn
(with
ellipsis
of
ql)
is
"stones"
(metathetic
parallelism).
Contrast
J.C.
de
Moor,
An
Anthology
of
Religious
Texts from
Ugarit, (Leiden
1987)
181
("if
the
trees
o
not
give
[sound],
if
the stones
do
not
murmur")
and
his
comment,
180,
n.40.
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44Wilfred G.E.Watson
wargmk
(lines 20d-21)
and
rgm
ltd'
mm
(line 27).18)
Less certain is KTU 1.6 V
17-19,
where Mot
says
to
Baal:
flk
.
pht. gly--bsdm.
"On
your
account
I
experienced
sinking
?)
in the
fields,
elk
.
pht
dre.
bym
on
your
account
I
experienced
sowing
in
the
sea,"
which
corresponds
to
the
single
line
(KTU
1.6
II
34-35):
bsd
tdr'.nn
"In
a
field
she
(Anath)
scattered
him
(Mot)."
This
is
an
indication,
perhaps,
that
in
the
couplet
too,
dre,
"sowing"
of
the second line really refers to bsdm, "in the fields," of the first, so that
gly.
-
(whatever
it
may
mean)
is connected
with
bym,
"in
the
sea"
of
the
second
line.19)
Bronznick
concluded his
note
by
discussing
possible
functions
of
metathetic
parallelism.
He listed
three
:
(1)
it
enables
the
poet
"to
arrange
for
the
concluding
words
of
the
first
stich
to
be
read
together
with
the
opening
words of the second
stich
as a
unit;"
(2)
the B-word
of
a
word
pair
can
come
in
the
A-word
position,
and
(3)
it is
used
for the
purpose
of
foreshadowing,"
i.e.,
proleptically.
Whichever
function
is
foremost,
the overall effect of metathetic
parallelism,
according
to Bronznick, is to
interlock
the
components
of
a
couplet.20)
The
functions of
metathetic
parallelism
in
the
Akkadian
and
Ugaritic
passages
presented
here
have
been discussed above.
The
examples
of metathesis
from Hebrew
and
Akkadian
given
here
as
well
as
the
additional
examples
of
metathetic
parallelism
in
languages
other than Hebrew show
that this
form
of
parallelism
must
now
be
accepted
as
a
genuine
sub-type
of
synonymous
parallelism.
There
is
no
doubt that future research
will extend
the
range
of instances.
18)Note theanacrusis ofdm; according toKorpel/de Moor, UF 18 (1986) 205, rgm.
es
etc.
begins
a new
strophe.
19)
On
gly
see now
G.
A.
Rendsburg,
JAOS
107
(1987)
627
(according
to
him
it
denotes
a
downward
movement)
and
on
the
whole
passage,
J.
F.
Healey,
"Burning
the
Corn:
new
light
n
the
killing
of
Motu",
Or 52
(1983)
248-251.
20)
Bronznick,
HAR
3
(1979)
37-38.
On
anadiplosis,
reversal
and
interlocking
cf.
W.
G.
E.
Watson,
Classical
Hebrew
Poetry
A
Guide
to
its
echniques
(Sheffield
1986)
208-213,
356-359
and 273
respectively.
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