Table Of ContentOath Formulas in Biblical Hebrew
Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic
edited by
M. O’Connor † and Cynthia L. Miller
The series Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic is devoted to the ancient
West Semitic languages, including Hebrew, Aramaic, Ugaritic, and their near
congeners. It includes monographs, collections of essays, and text editions in-
formed by the approaches of linguistic science. The material studied will span
from the earliest texts to the rise of Islam.
1. The Verbless Clause in Biblical Hebrew: Linguistic Approaches,
edited by Cynthia L. Miller
2. Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew: An Introduction,
by Joshua Blau
3. A Manual of Ugaritic, by Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee
4. Word Order in the Biblical Hebrew Finite Clause: A Syntactic and
Pragmatic Analysis of Preposing, by Adina Moshavi
5. Oath Formulas in Biblical Hebrew, by Blane Conklin
Oath Formulas
in Biblical Hebrew
Blane Conklin
Winona Lake, Indiana
Eisenbrauns
2011
Copyright © 2011 Eisenbrauns
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
www.eisenbrauns.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conklin, Blane.
Oath formulas in biblical Hebrew / Blane Conklin.
p. cm. — (Linguistic studies in ancient West Semitic ; 5)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-57506-203-7 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Hebrew language—Syntax. 2. Hebrew language—
Morphology. 3. Bible. O.T.—Language, style. 4. Oaths in the
Bible. I. Title.
PJ4707.C66 2011
492.4′5 —dc22
2011003082
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1984.†Ê
Contents
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1. The Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2. Oaths as Speech Acts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3. The General Structure of Oaths. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4. Previous Scholarship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5. Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2. The Authenticating Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1. Raising of a Hand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
2.1.1. Mention of Hand-Raising as a Reference to Oath-
Taking 15
2.1.2. Use of Hand-Raising within the Oath Itself 16
2.2. Invocation of Witness(es). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
2.3. Swearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3.1. Mention of the Verb šbʿ in the Narrative Context 19
2.3.2. Use of the Verb šbʿ within an Oath 19
2.3.3. Use of the Verb šbʿ within an Adjuration 21
2.4. “Thus Will X Do to Y” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5. “(By) the Life of X” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5.1. Mention of “Life of X” Outside of Oaths 27
2.5.2. Use of “Life of X” as Part of an Actual Oath 27
2.6. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3. Conditionally Formulated Oaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1. Summary of Secondary Literature on
Conditional-Clause Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2. Special Study of Conditional-Clause Syntax in 1 Samuel . . 33
3.2.1. Nominal Clause 34
3.2.1.1. Nominal Clause as Initial Constituent 34
3.2.1.2. Nominal Clause Preceded by Single
Constituent 34
3.2.2. Perfective Verb 34
3.2.2.1. Perfective Verb as Initial Constituent 35
v
vi Contents
3.2.2.2. Perfective Verb Preceded by Single
Constituent 35
3.2.2.3. Perfective Verb Is Gapped 36
3.2.3. Imperfective Verb 36
3.2.3.1. Imperfective Verb as Initial Constituent 36
3.2.3.2. Imperfective Verb Preceded by Single
Constituent 37
3.3. Oath Content Introduced by ʾm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
3.3.1. Nominal Clause 38
3.3.2. Perfective Verb 38
3.3.3. Imperfective Verb 39
3.3.3.1. Imperfective Verb as Initial Constituent 39
3.3.3.2. Imperfective Verb Preceded by Single
Constituent 40
3.4. Oath Content Introduced by ʾm-lʾ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
3.4.1. Nominal Clause 41
3.4.1.1. Nominal Clause as Initial Constituent 41
3.4.1.2. Nominal Clause Preceded by Two or More
Constituents 41
3.4.2. Perfective Verb 42
3.4.2.1. Perfective Verb as Initial Constituent 42
3.4.2.2. Perfective Verb Preceded by Single
Constituent 42
3.4.3. Imperfective Verb 43
3.4.3.1. Imperfective Verb as Initial Constituent 43
3.4.3.2. Imperfective Verb Preceded by Single
Constituent 43
3.4.3.3. Imperfective Verb Preceded by Two or More
Constituents 43
3.5. Conclusion on Conditionally Framed Oaths . . . . . . . . . 44
4. Oaths Marked with ky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.1. Summary of ky Syntax from Secondary Literature. . . . . .46
4.2. Special Study of ky Syntax in 1 Samuel . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3. Oath Content Introduced by ky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
4.3.1. Ky as the Complementizer to the Explicit
Predicate 50
4.3.1.1. The Verb šbʿ ‘To Swear’ 50
4.3.1.2. Nominal Clause “X Is a Witness” 51
4.3.2. Ky as the Complementizer to the Elided Predicate
šbʿ 51
4.3.3. Syntactical Complications Common to
Both Types (§4.3.1 and §4.3.2) 52
4.3.3.1. Resumptive ky 52
Contents vii
4.3.3.2. Full or Partial Conditional Clause within ky
Clause 54
4.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5. Exceptions and Objections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.1. Oath Content Formulated in Other Ways. . . . . . . . . . .60
5.1.1. Oath Content Marked with Particle ʾšr 60
5.1.2. Oath Content Marked with Particle mh 61
5.1.3. Oath Content with No Marker 62
5.1.3.1. Oath Elements Reversed 62
5.1.3.2. Morphosyntactical Constraint 62
5.1.3.3. Poetical Constraint 63
5.1.3.4. Oath Content as Full Conditional Sentence 63
5.1.3.5. Contextual Variant 64
5.1.3.6. No Apparent Explanation 64
5.2. Relationship of Markers of Oath Content to
Authenticating Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3. The Alleged Function of ky-ʾm as an Oath Marker. . . . . .66
5.3.1. Weak Examples 68
5.3.2. No Oath in Context 69
5.3.3. Two Particles Function Separately 73
5.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
6. Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
7. Appendix: Oath Formulas in Other Semitic Languages . . . . . . . 79
7.1. Northwest Semitic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
7.1.1. Ugaritic 79
7.1.2. Old Aramaic Dialects 80
7.1.2.1. Old Aramaic 81
7.1.2.2. Official Aramaic 81
7.2. Akkadian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
7.2.1. Mention of Oath Speech Acts 82
7.2.1.1. Verb of Swearing 82
7.2.1.2. “Life of X” 83
7.2.1.3. Touching of Throat 84
7.2.1.4. Curse 84
7.2.2. Authenticating Formulas 85
7.2.2.1. Mention of Precious Entity 85
7.2.2.2. Verb of Swearing 86
7.2.2.3. Witnesses 86
7.2.2.4. May the Gods Strike Me 87
7.2.3. Oath Content 87
7.2.3.1. Formulated as an Asseverative Clause 88
7.2.3.2. Formulated as an Incomplete Conditional
Clause 90
viii Contents
7.2.4. Akkadian Summary 92
7.3. Classical Arabic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
7.3.1. Authenticating Formulas 93
7.3.1.1. Life of X 93
7.3.1.2. Verb of Swearing 94
7.3.1.3. Particles wa- and ta- 94
7.3.2. Oath Content 94
7.3.2.1. Negative Particles lā and mā 94
7.3.2.2. Asseverative Particle la 95
7.3.2.3. Asseverative Particle ʾinna 95
7.3.3. Arabic Summary 95
7.4. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Index of Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Index of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
List of Tables
Table 1. Conditional Protases in 1 Samuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Table 2. Conditional Oaths with ʾm 40
Table 3. Conditional Oaths with ʾm-lʾ 44
Table 4. Summary of Tables 1, 2, and 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Table 5. Conditional Clauses in Oaths Following ky 55
Table 6. Correlation of Authenticating Elements and
Oath Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Table 7. Hebrew Lexicons Identifying ky-ʾm as Oath Marker . . . 66
Table 8. Ky-ʾm in the Major Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
ix
