ANIMADVERSIONES Self-Abasement as an Expression of Thanks in the Hebrew Bible 1 I. Introduction In 2 Sam 9,8, when Mephibosheth responds to David’s offer of a royal pension (the right to eat at court), he says, after doing obeisance: “ What is your servant, that you should look upon a dead dog such as I?” 2 Earlier in David’s career, Abigail responds similarly to David’s proposal to marry her: She rose and bowed down, with her face to the ground, and said, “ Your servant is a slave to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. ” (1 Sam 25,41) What is the intent behind such statements? Obviously the person abases him/herself to the hearer but why do it? I wish to answer these questions by arguing that Israelites tended to abase themselves when they gave thanks for a favour received or request granted. By doing this, they avoided expressing indebtedness to whoever gave the request/favour. Self-abasement occurs frequently in the Hebrew Bible. The most common example is the use of master-slave deference (ynda, “ my lord”; Ètjpç / Ètma / Èdb[, “your female servant [slave] / your male servant [slave]”), frequently recognized as humble speech 3. 1 Sam 25,41 has a particularly strong form of this language, using This article is a revised version of papers presented at the Second Annual 1 Australasian Christian Conference for the Church and the Academy, Brisbane, Australia, 29 June – 2 July 2010; and at the Ancient History Research Semi- nars, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 8 Oct 2010. I wish to thank Dr Stephen Llewelyn and Dr Tom Hillard for reviewing previous drafts and for their helpful comments. English translations are from the NRSV unless otherwise indicated. 2 See, e.g. W. ZIMMERLI – J. JEREMIAS, The Servant of God (SBT ; trans. 3 H . K n i g h t , J. J e r e m i a s and others; London 1965) 15; H. R I N G G R E N –