Who lost an earring? Genesis 35:4 reconsidered

Who lost an earring? Genesis 35:4 reconsidered

Hurowitz, Victor Avigdor
Bell & Howell Information and Learning: Foreign text omitted.

AFTER FLEEING SHECHEM Jacob prepares for a return visit to Bethel. As part of the arrangements he gives these instructions to the members of his family: ..., "remove the foreign gods which are amongst you, purify yourselves, and change your clothes" (Gen 35:2). In compliance with this order, as the narrator reports, ..., "they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their possession and the earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth near Shechem" (35:4). Much has been written about this incident, and archaeological evidence has been adduced to illustrate and explain the burial of divine statues in holy places.1 It seems that a small grammatical problem essential to understanding Gen 35:4 has been overlooked, however: What is the antecedent of the possessive pronoun "their" (...) suffixed to "ears" (...)? In other words, whose earrings are buried?

From earliest times, nearly all exegetes have taken the pronoun to refer to the members of Jacob's family.2 The earrings to be buried were those they wore in their own ears. This grammatical analysis has resulted in two explanations for the burial of the earrings. (1) The author of Targum PseudoJonathan and others have suggested that the earrings bore idolatrous pictures or shapes and were themselves objects of worship.3 (2) Some more recent scholars consider the jewelry to be amulets.4 The first interpretation is difficult because in practice there is nothing to distinguish earrings graphically or glyptically representing deities from idols in general so why single such earrings out? It is also difficult to imagine items as small as earrings actually used as cult statues, even though real cult statues need not be life-sized. Moreover, as Othmar Keel points out, it seems that there are no archaeologically attested examples of earrings shaped like idols.5 The second possibility can be rejected because, as Keel has demonstrated, there is no evidence that ... ever means amulet.6 Also, since amulets could be Yahwistic (examples are phylacteries and the famous silver strips from Ketef Hinnom on which the Priestly Blessing is inscribed), they would not necessarily have been found objectionable in se.

Although these explanations cannot be refuted conclusively, another possible interpretation is so simple, obvious, and likely that one must consider it, wondering all the while why it has barely entered modern discussion. This interpretation, suggested long ago by the medieval commentator Hizzequni,7 and more recently by A. B. Ehrlich,8 is that the earrings were in the ears of the idols. In other words, the earrings proscribed for eradication are not pieces of human jewelry but elements of divine regalia. Evidence for them is adduced by W W Hallo in his article about cult statues.9

On linguistic grounds, the explanation proposed here, that in Gen 35:4 "their ears" means the ears of (the idols of) the "foreign gods," is just as probable as the generally accepted explanation that the ears are those of the members of Jacob's family.10 Moreover, the placement of earrings on divine statues is a well attested practice in the ancient Near East.11 Textual evidence is provided by cuneiform sources. Catalogues of divine jewelry such as the inventory of Ishtar of Lagaba's regalia and the cultic inventory from Qatna include earrings, and an actual earring bearing an inscription dedicating it to a goddess has been found.12 Literary texts contain allusions to divine earrings. According to a prayer of Shalmaneser III, ..., "they placed earrings of fine gold on its (the image's) ears."13 In the poetic composition Istar's Descent to the Netherworld, which may reflect a cultic procession with a divine statue, we read that as Ishtar entered one of the seven gates of the netherworld she was deprived of her earrings: ..., "He brought her through the second gate and he stripped off and carried away the rings in her ears."14 In the so-called Love Lyrics of Nabu and Tasmetu, which may also have some sort of cultic background, the goddess says to her spouse, ..., "My husband, place an earring upon me and in the orchard I will give you pleasure; Nabu, My husband, place an earring upon me, and in the Tablet House I will make you happy."15

Most important, from the land of Israel and neighboring areas there is archaeological evidence of divine jewelry, including earrings. A god with an earring still in place is in O. Negbi's exhaustive catalogue with comments.16 This seated god, from Megiddo, has pierced ears and a gold ring in his left ear. Another, from Tell Judeideh, has bronze wire earrings in pierced earlobes.17 A female figurine from Luristan, has a gold wire in its ear.18 There are also figurines of gods whose pierced ears indicate earrings which have been lost.19 Paradoxically, the statues divested of their earrings are of particular importance, for they may suggest why the children of Jacob removed the earrings from the statues. One may assume that some of the statues found without their original earrings were stripped of their valuable jewelry already in antiquity, the less valuable metal composing the body then being discarded.

It remains problematic why the idols and divine earrings were buried under the sacred tree in Shechem (cf. Jos 24:23), but it is clear that this is part of Jacob's "removing" the foreign gods and purifying his clan.

As for the reason for ridding the camp of the divine earrings and not only of the idols themselves, we may find a clue in Deut 7:25-26: "Their divine statues you shall burn in fire. You shall not covet silver or gold upon them and take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to Yhwh your God. Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, for you will be proscribed like it. You shall be utterly disgusted with it and abominate it because it is proscribed." This is a prohibition of idols covered with silver and gold, but it would certainly apply to clothing and jewelry as well. The idols, which would be made of wood, are to be burnt. The gold and silver accoutrements remain dangerous, probably because they can be made into new idols (cf. Exod 32:2-3; Judg 8:25-27). Accordingly, they are to be treated as disgusting abominations and eliminated in any way possible. So in the case of Jacob's family, Jacob buries the earrings, lest his sons, recognizing that as earrings of idols they are already holy, appropriate them for recycling into fresh statues. We need not infer that the narrator of the legend in Genesis has portrayed the patriarchal period in terms of Deuteronomistic legislation, but we may learn that the legislator and the narrator shared the belief that the undesirable qualities of idols were those of their accoutrements as well.20

1 See the bibliography given by C. Westermann, Genesis 12-36 (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1985; German original completed in 1981) 546, and especially by O. Keel, "Das Vergraben der 'fremden Gutter' in Genesis xxxv 4b," VT 23 (1973) 305-36.

2 In addition to surveying commentaries; I have asked many colleagues and acquaintances with a knowledge of Biblical Hebrew. I have found that most interpret the verse in this way.

3 According to Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the earrings "were in the ears of the inhabitants of the city of Shechem upon which were drawn an image of his idol (.?"MID nrn dry '1ni)" (see E. G. Clarke, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch: Text and Concordance [Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1984] 43; M. Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Genesis [Aramaic Bible 1 B; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992] 119). For other expressions of the opinion that the earrings bore idolatrous images, see M. Kasher, Torah Shelemah, Talmud-Midrashic Encyclopedia on the Pentateuch S: Genesis (Jerusalem: Azriel, 1936) 1339-40 (Hebrew).

4 Westermann (Genesis 12-36, 551) agrees with the majority in holding that "it is most likely a matter of amulets," but he knows that Keel ("Vergraben der `fremden Gotter,'" 306-7) rejects this explanation. More recent commentators still prefer it, either by itself or in combination with another explanation. N. M. Sarna (The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis/mmKt' (Philadelphia/ New York: Jewish Publication Society, 1989] 240), for example, writes that the earrings "are no ordinary pieces of jewelry but talismans adorned with pagan symbols," and M. Weinfeld (Olam ha-Tanakh I: Beresit [Tel Aviv; Davidson-Iti, 1993] 197) observes that "as in the case of other pieces of jewelry, earrings . . . were often made in the shape of small figurines which also served as amulets." G. D. Wenham (Genesis 16-50 [WBC 2; Dallas, TX: Word, 1994] 324) compares the destruction of Midianite booty in Num 31:50 and concludes that in Gen 34:4 "the rings removed by Jacob's sons may well have been part of the booty captured by them from the Shechemites."

5 Keel, "Vergraben der 'fremden Gotten'" 306-7 n. 4.

6 Ibid.

7 Hizzequni's opinion may actually be based on the talmudic and halakic discussions of the question whether accoutrements of idols were to be destroyed along with the idols themselves, for such discussions were centered on this pericope; see the sources cited by Kasher, Torah Shelemah, 5. 1339-40.

8 A. B. Ehrlich, Randglossen zur hebrdischen Bibel I: Genesis and Exodus (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1908) 178.

9 W W Hallo, "Cult Statue and Divine Image: A Preliminary Study," in Scripture in Context 2: More Essays on the Comparative Method (ed. W W Hallo, J. C. Moyer, and L. G. Perdue; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1983) I-17. Hallo mentions and interprets Gen 34:5 (esp. on pp. 16-17), but he does not seem to realize that he is actually providing essential data in support of a nearly unknown explanation of it.

10 According to B. Jacob (Das erste Buch der Tora, Genesis [Berlin: Schocken, 1934] 66162), "Das Suffix von ... auf ... beziehen . . , ist unstatthaft," but he offers no grounds for his rejection of this grammatical analysis.

11 Hallo ("Cult Statue," 16) tells us that earrings were "among the typical accoutrements of cult statues by Neo-Sumerian times at the end of the [third] millennium [B.C.E.]."

12 Not all gods and goddesses were provided with earrings. Inventories of jewelry and clothing for the sun god Shamash and his spouse Aia do not list any an.abtu (see F Joannes, "Les temples de Sippar et leurs tr6sors a l'epoque n6o-babylonienne," RA 86 [1992] 159-84).

13 E. Ebeling, Keilschrifttexte aus Assur religidsen Inhalts (2 vols.; WVDOG 18, 34; Leipzig: Hinrichs,1915-23) 1. text 98 r. 17 lines 45-46, quoted here from CAD, A2. 145 s.v. ansabru.

14 See W R. Sladek, Inanna s Descent to the Nether World (Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1974; available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI) 244. On the proposed relationship between the myth and a ritual procession with a divine statue, see G. Buccellati, The Descent of Inanna as a Ritual Journey to Kutha? (Syro-Mesopotamian Studies 4/3; Malibu, CA: Undena, 1982) 3-7. On the significance of undressing Ishtar, see D. Katz, "Inanna's Descent and the Undressing of the Dead as a Divine Law," ZA 85 (1995) 221-33.

15 A. Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea (State Archives of Assyria 3; Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1989) 36 (text 14:13-16).

16 O. Negbi, Canaanite Gods in Metal: An Archaeological Study of Ancient Syro-Palestinian Figurines (Publications of the Institute of Archaeology 5; Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University Institute of Archaeology, 1976) no. 1453.

17 Ibid., no. 1384.

18 Ibid., no. 1563.

19 Ibid., nos. 40-43 (a Lebanese group), 1311, 1372-73, 1378 (Syro-Anatolian), 1397, 1446, 1454 (from Hazor), 1492, 1507, 1632.

20 This article was written while I was on sabbatical leave at the Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I am grateful to the center for its hospitality and its generous support of my scholarly research. I also wish to thank Professor Mark Smith of St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia for reading a manuscript of this article and offering some valuable comments.

VICTOR AVIGDOR HUROWITZ

Ben Gurion University

Beer Sheba

Israel

Copyright Catholic Biblical Association of America Jan 2000
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