AbishAg Hebrew Bible Monographs, 93 A bishAg AdministrAtor of King dAvid’s household Daniel Bodi sheffield Phoenix Press 2021 Copyright © 2021 Shefeld Phoenix Press Published by Shefeld Phoenix Press Shefeld Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies (SIIBS), University of Shefeld, S10 2TN www.shefeldphoenix.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without the publishers’ permission in writing. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Typeset by Trans.form.ed ISBN 978-1-910928-87-5 (hardback) Contents Abbreviations ix Abisag—a Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke (1905/6) xv Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Abishag in the Hebrew Narrative (1 Kings 1 and 2) 9 1. 1 Kings 1–2, as the Continuation of 2 Samuel 9 2. The Last Outworking of the Retributive Justice in David’s Life 11 3. Old and Advancing in Years (zāqēn bā’ bayyāmîm, v. 1) 16 4. Keeping ‘Warm’ with Clothes—or Pulling Wool over One’s Eyes 17 4.1. The ‘Clothes’ (begādîm) and the ‘Treachery’ (bōgedîm) 18 4.2. Keeping David Warm—Two Kinds of Heat 22 5. The Literary Topos of Placing a Young Virgin in an Old Man’s Lap 26 6. Abishag as an Androgynous (Intersex) Person According to the Rabbis 34 7. Was Abishag Part of an Original Potency Ritual? 40 8. Conclusion 46 Chapter 2 Abishag as the Administrator of King David’s Household, Hebrew sōkenet, West-Semitic sākinu and Akkadian šākin bīti 49 1. Abishag as House Administrator, sōkenet, in Hebrew 49 2. The Term *sōkinu in Fourteenth-Century bce Amarna Texts 53 3. The Term sākinu at Ugarit (Fourteenth and Thirteenth Century bce) 55 4. The Female House Administrator (MUNUS abarakkatu) in Old Babylonian Mari Royal Palace 60 5. To ‘Exercise Rule’, ‘To Dwell’, and the Link with Erect Stones (Betylus) and Steles 64 6. The šākin bīti in the Kingdom of Arrapḫa (Fifteenth- and Fourteenth-Century bce Nuzi) 68 7. Neo-Assyrian (šākin m.) and (šākintu f.) as Majordomo, House or Palace Administrator 73 8. Conclusion 81 vi Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household Chapter 3 Adonijah’s Coup d’État 82 1. Adonijah as Absalom Redivivus: Another Failed Coup d’État 82 2. Adonijah and Kirta’s Son Yaṣṣubu: Rebellion against the King as a Cursed Enterprise 85 3. Adonijah and the Connection with Ninurta-Nimrod, the Biblical Rebel Par Excellence 89 3.1. Hunting, Military, and Royal Symbolism, with Echoes of Ninurta-Nimrod 90 3.2. The Link with Ancient Jerusalem’s Divinity Ḫebat 97 3.3. Mythological Significance: The Link with Asherah, Fertility and the Serpents 103 3.4. Economic Significance 107 4. Conclusion 109 Chapter 4 Where’s the Oath? 111 1. Introduction 111 2. The First Mention of the Supposed ‘Oath’ by the Court Prophet Nathan 112 3. Bathsheba and the Second Mention of the ‘Oath Sworn by Yahweh’ 116 4. Nathan’s Speech Mentioning Adonijah Twice and Omitting the Oath 120 5. David Gobbles Down the ‘Solomon’s Oath’, Making an Oath within an Oath 121 6. The Lists of David’s Sons and the Dynastic Principle of ‘Porphyrogenesis’ 122 7. The Literary Topos of the Reversal of Fortunes: The First Shall Be Last 127 8. Conclusion 129 Chapter 5 Adonijah’s Chariot and Horsemen and Solomon’s She-Donkey: The Donkey as the Hebrew Royal Symbol in Light of Amorite Customs 135 1. Introduction 135 2. Adonijah’s Chariots and Horses Versus Solomon’s Royal She-Donkey 136 3. Saul’s Journey after the Missing Asses (1 Samuel 9) and the Donkey as the Hebrew Royal Symbol 138 4. The Equids in the Ancient Near East and Ancient Israel 140 5. The ‘Donkey of Peace’: The Donkey as a Sacrificial Animal in Covenant Making 151 Contents vii 6. The Reinterpretation of the Hebrew Messianic Symbolism of the She-Donkey 155 7. Conclusion 158 Appendix 158 Chapter 6 The Role of the King’s Mother (gebîrâ) in Royal Succession (1 Kings 2) 161 1. Issues of Terminology, No Queen or Queen Mother, Just King’s Mother 161 2. The King’s Mother Mentioned Only with Reference to the Judean Kings 164 3. Mothers of the Kings and Their Religious Role in the Asherah Fertility Cult 174 Chapter 7 The King’s Mother in the Ancient Near East (Egypt, Mari, Ḫatti, Ugarit, Assyria) 183 1. Introduction 183 2. The Mother of the King as the Mother of God in Egypt 184 3. Addu-dūri, the Mother of the King Zimrī-Līm at Mari, and Dām-ḫurāṣi the Mother of the Heir 189 4. The Institution of the Tawananna in the Hittite Empire and the Queen Puduḫeba 192 5. The Mother of the King at Ugarit, the Dame Aḫat-Milku 198 6. The Mother of the King in the Kingdom of Alalaḫ 200 7. The Mother of the King in Assyria 201 7.1. Naqi’a-Zakûtu the Mother of King Esarhaddon 202 7.2. Šammu-ramat/Semiramis 209 8. Conclusion 211 Chapter 8 The Four Wives of King David and the Four Women of Odysseus 213 1. Introduction 213 2. The Ambiguity between the Terms for Woman and Wife in Greek and Hebrew 214 3. Differences between the Texts Compared 215 4. The Names Odysseus and David 217 5. Odysseus and the Four Women in His Life 221 6. The Nymph Circe (Κίρκη) 224 7. The Nymph Calypso (Καλυψώ) 234 8. The Young Virgin Nausicaa 240 9. Penelope (Πηνελόπη)—the Emblematic Faithful Wife 249 viii Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household 10. The Abuse of Hospitality at Odysseus’ Palace 254 10.1. Abigail’s Intervention in 1 Samuel 25 in Light of Ancient Near Eastern Hospitality Customs 256 10.2. Hospitality Customs in Ancient Mesopotamia 258 11. Eurycleia, the Wet-Nurse and Administrator of Odysseus’s Household and Abishag 264 12. Conclusion 267 Chapter 9 The Stories of David’s Wives as a Hebrew ‘Advice to a Prince’ (Fürstenspiegel) 269 1. Introduction 269 2. From the Babylonian ‘Fürstenspiegel’ or ‘Mirror for Princes’ to Fénélon’s Télémaque 269 3. The Babylonian Advice to a Prince 276 4. The Babylonian Advice to a Prince and the Bathsheba Episode 287 5. Wisdom Equated with Prophecy in the Advice to a Prince and 1 Samuel 25, Abigail and David 294 6. The Advice to a Prince and the Abishag Episode in 1 Kings 1 297 7. Conclusion 298 Chapter 10 Cunning and Craftiness as Archaic Forms of Wisdom, in the Hebrew Bible, Classical Greece, and the Ancient Near East 303 1. Cunning in the Hebrew Bible 393 2. Wisdom and Cunning in Ancient Greece 310 3. The Greek Goddess of Cunning Mētis and the Aptitude of Craftiness 316 4. The Crafty God Enki/Ea of the Mesopotamian Religious Traditions 321 Conclusion 327 Bibliography 353 Index of References 396 Index of Authors 409 Abbreviations AASOR The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research AB Anchor Bible ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman; 6 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1992) ABS Archaeology and Biblical Studies ACF Annuaire du Collège de France AfO Archiv für Orientforschung AHw W. von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch (3 vols.; Wiesbaden, 1965–81) AION Annali del’Istituto Orientale di Napoli AIPHOS Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves AJBA Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology AJP American Journal of Philology AJSL American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures AnBib Analecta Biblica ANEP The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (ed. James B. Pritchard; 2nd edn; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994) ANET The Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ed. J.B. Pritchard; 3rd edn; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969) AnOr Analecta Orientalia AOAT Alter Orient und Altes Testament AOS American Oriental Series ARMT Archives Royales de Mari, Textes, Transcription et traduction (Paris, 1950–) ArOr Archív orientální AS Assyriological Studies ASTI Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute ATANT Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und Neuen Testaments AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies b. Babylonian Talmud BA The Biblical Archaeologist BAR The Biblical Archaeologist Reader BASOR Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research BBB Bonner biblische Beiträge x Abishag: Administrator of King David’s Household BBET Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research BDB F. Brown, S.R. Driver and C.A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907; 1968) BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridium Theologicarum Lovaniensium Bib Biblica BibOr Biblica et Orientalia BJ La Bible de Jérusalem BK Biblischer Kommentar BM Bibliotheca Mesopotamica BN Biblische Notizen BR Biblical Research BBB Bonner Biblische Beiträge BBR Bulletin of Biblical Research BBVO Berliner Beträge zum Vorderen Orient BWL W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960) BZ Biblische Zeitschrift BZAW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft CAD The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago CahRB Cahiers de la Revue Biblique CBC The Cambridge Bible Commentary CBQ Catholic Biblical Quartely CahRB Cahiers de la Revue Biblique CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology CH Codex Hammurabi CHANE Culture and History of the Ancient Near East CJ Classical Journal ClQ Classical Quarterly COS The Context of Scripture (ed. William W. Hallo; 3 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1997–2002) CSA Copenhagen Studies in Assyriology CT Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum CTN Cuneiform Texts from Nimrud CUSAS Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology DBAT Dielheimer Blätter zum Alten Testament DBS Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supplément DDD Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (ed. K. van der Toorn, B. Becking, and P. W. van der Horst; Leiden: Brill, 1999) DNWSI J. Hoftijzer and K. Jongeling, Dictionary of the North-West Semitic Inscriptions (Leiden: Brill, 1995) EA El Amarna Tablets: J.A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln (1-358); A.F. Rainey, El Amarna Tablets (359-79) ErIs Eretz Israel EJ Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1971)