Yahweh Gears Up for Battle: Habakkuk 3,9a 77 The first word is, according to the MT, t/[buv] (lit., “oaths”). Yet virtually all modern interpreters rightly agree that this reading is a poor fit in the context and reject it (15). Several of the versions point to a reading t[bç. The LXX reads eJptav, (“seven”) and Barberini ejcovrtasa" (“you have sated”). The former reflects a derivative from the root [bv and the latter from the root [bc. Some commentators have gone with the derivation from the verbal root [bv. HALOT recommends that of the various proposals for the reading of this colon “first consideration should be given” to “two which remain particularly close to MT” (16), both of which support this derivation. The first was proposed by F. Horst: rm'aTo t/Fm' t/[buv], “Pfeilflüche sprichst du” (17). The second was suggested by A. Keller: rm,ao t/Fm' t/[buv] “Tu conjures les javelots avec des paroles” (18). Yet neither of these can be correct because both give an unlikely translation of [bv. The root means “to swear, to take an oath”. It is true that in some contexts it can mean “curse”, but only in a very restricted sense. It can only designate a curse in the sense of a self-imprecation, an oath which has been broken by the one who swore it. The term is precisely equivalent to Akkadian m˝m^tu. The CAD’s translation of the latter term is instructive for the understanding of Hebrew h[wbv: “1. oath . . . sworn agreement, 2. curse (consequences of a broken oath attacking a person who took it . . . )” (19). That is, the oath can become a curse only upon one who has taken and then broken it. It is not transferrable to other persons and, a fortiori, is not applicable to inanimate objects such as weapons. Several versions read the verb in question as a derivative of [bc, “to sate” — i.e., Barberini and Syr. Barberini reads ejcovrtasa" bolivda" th'" farevtra" autou' (“You have sated the shafts of his [sic] quiver”). Syr translates with a j 3rd plural form of [bc: wnsb¿wn g÷r÷ bm÷mrk (“And [your] arrows were sated with your word”), possibly reading the MT’s t/[buv] as a Qal passive participle modifying twfm. Most frequently [bc is used of dry land to denote abundant watering or of human beings to denote fullness, satiety after eating or drinking. From this derive various figurative uses, in which one is sated with (long) life or with various positive or negative emotions — bitterness, joy, love, etc. The only use of [bc in the MT with a weapon is Jer 46,10, where the sword is said to “devour” (hlkaw), “be sated” (h[bcw), and “drink its fill” (htwrw). The image here is clearly based on the idiom of a person being sated with food or drink(20). The verb is not used with arrows in the MT, but there is a similar usage with the verb rkv, “to be drunk”, which speaks of making one’s arrows “drunk with blood” (Deut 32:42). So in theory a derivation from [bc is not wholly out of the question, especially in the sense of being sated with blood as Barberini seems to understand it. Syr’s translation, however, is quite unlikely, as the MT contains no examples of anything being sated with a “word”. (15) A literal translation of the MT would be “the oaths of the tribes” (so KJV). (16) HALAT, 1289; HALOT, 1385. (17) T. ROBINSON – F. HORST, Die zwölf Kleinen Propheten (HAT 14; Tübingen 1954) 182. 2 (18) In R. VUILLEMIER – C.-A. KELLER, Michée, Nahoum, Habacuc, Sophonie (CAT 11b; Paris 1971) 172. But the Piel of this verb, which Keller reads here, is attested neither in biblical nor post-biblical Hebrew. (19) CAD M/1, 189 (emphasis mine). (20) The verb [bc occurs with lka in this usage 25x in the MT.