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Document Details : Title: Homonymous Roots between Exegesis and Textual Criticism Subtitle: The Case of חבלי־מות and חבלי שאול in Ps 18,5-6 Author(s): YUROVITSKAYA, Maria Journal: Biblica Volume: 105 Issue: 4 Date: 2024 Pages: 494-505 DOI: 10.2143/BIB.105.4.3294172 Abstract : With regard to the variants חבלי־מות in Ps 18,5 and משברי־מות in 2 Sam 22,5, I join Talmon in considering them not as transmission errors but as synonymous readings. However, I demonstrate that the equating of these two terms as both denoting 'birth pangs' is not attested in the Hebrew Bible but is a later exegetical development. I argue that חבלי־מות in Ps 18,5 should be interpreted as 'destructions of death' (from the root ḫbl). In this sense, it constitutes an appropriate synonymous pairing for משברי־מות 'breakers of death', and its juxtaposition with the expression חבלי שאול 'cords of Sheol' in v. 6 is an intended wordplay. |
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