Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

S. Japhet / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 36-76 75
In the last meaning it is found in two places, both in the form of a fixed
idiom:196 In Isa. lxvi 2, 5, as חרד על דברי and חרדים אל דברו and in Ezr. ix 4,
‎197‎‏.חרד בדברי x 3, as
is a fixed idiom in Ezr.-Neh. and possibly, although this cannot חרד בדבר ה׳
be proved, a technical term, but in Chr. it is lacking.
עתים מזומנים .F
The word זמן is a loan word from Aramaic198 and belongs to late biblical
Hebrew.199 From it the form מזומן and the phrase עתים מזומנים are derived.
The phrase is peculiar to Ezr.-Neh. and there it occurs in different literary parts;
Ezr. × 14; Neh. × 34, xiii 31.
The word זמן and the derived phrase מזומנים“‏ ‏”עתים are not found in Chr.
אלהים הטה חסד על פלוני לפני .G
“God has extended his love to someone before someone” occurs in the O.T.
twice, both in Ezr.: 1) Ezr. viii 28: “Blessed be the Lord . . . who extended to me
his steadfast love before the king and his counsellors”. 2) Ezr. ix 9: “Yet our
God has not forsaken us . . . but has extended to us his steadfast love before the
kings of Persia to grant us some reviving”.
The peculiar phrase has no parallel in the O.T.200 but its use in Ezr. is free
and organic. However, it is quite limited and in other places, including Chr., it
is absent.
196) It seems, although the material is meagre, that the form found in Ezr. is later. The earlier
usage of the verb is ל“‏ ‏”חרד or על“‏ ‏”חרד and not ב”‏ ‏“חרד as in 2 Sam. iv 13 or 2 Ki. vi 13.
197) The difference between ל)על)“‏ ‏”חרד in Isa. and ב”‏ ‏“חרד in Ezr. is not revealed by the translation.
198) Its origin, whether from Persian or Accadian, is not agreed upon. Cf. KBL, p. 1072.
199) Eccl. iii 1; Neh. ii 6; Esther ix 26, 27. In Aramaic, Ezr. v 3; Dan. ii 16, 21; iii 7, 8; iv 33; iv 11, 14; vii
12, 22, 25.
200) The development of the peculiar expression might have been as follows: In one instance
ויהי ה׳ את יוסף ויט אליו חסד ויתן את חנו בעיני שר בית”‏ expression: in the O.T. we find a similar
“But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him (lit: extended to him) steadfast love and הסהר
gave him favour in the sight (lit: in the eyes) of the keeper of the prison” (Gen. xxxix 21). The
phrases compounded with the word חן such as מצא חן “find, obtain favour”, נתן חן “give favour” or
“cause to obtain favour” are connected, in earlier Hebrew, with בעיני “in the eyes of ”. Cf. Gen. vi 8,
נשא xviii 3, etc., Exod. iii 21, etc. In Esther the regular usage (sometimes with the substitution of
נשא חן לפני (Esther vii 5) and מצא חן לפני Esther‏—מצא ii 15, v 2, vii 8) interchanges with for
(Esther ii 17)—“before”. If we turn now to our expression in Ezr. we might suppose that it is actually
an eliptic expression, omitting the words חן“‏ ‏”נתן and parallel to Gen. xxxix 21. It should be
understood thus: Ezr. vii ועלי הטה חסד ‏]ויתן את חני לפני המלך ויועציו]—‏‎28‎ . . . who extended to
me his steadfast love [and gave me favour] before the King . . .”. Likewise in Ezr. ix 6 “. . . and has
extended to us his steadfast love [and gave us favour] before the kings of Persia”.