07_Biblica_AN_Rogland_Layout 1 01/04/14 12:05 Pagina 119 119 HEAVENLY CHARIOTS AND EARTHLY REBELLION IN ZECHARIAH 6 an explanation. The present article will explore this question as it relates to the latter pericope and will argue, contrary to the current scholarly con- sensus, that the scene is indeed a warlike one, as will emerge from an im- proved philological analysis of vv. 5-6 12. I believe that v. 5’s #rah-lk !wda-l[ bcythm merits closer attention in this regard, beginning with the meaning of the syntagm l[ bcyth. This seemingly innocuous phrase has occasioned little controversy in the schol- arly literature and is typically rendered as “after (or: ‘from’) presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth”, referring to the heavenly char- iots and horses described in the vision. Mullen states that the Hitpael of bcy is employed as a technical term for participating in an assembly, but the NRSV is probably more representative of scholarship in general in ren- dering the expression as “to present oneself before” someone else, and such an understanding of the expression finds confirmation in the standard lexica 13. While it is generally admitted that “to present oneself before” a person is typically expressed by ynpl bcyth rather than l[ bcyth, in this instance the two expressions are viewed as essentially synonymous 14. What grounds are there for challenging what is, in fact, a widespread scholarly consensus regarding the meaning of l[ bcyth? As an important preliminary observation it should be noted that elsewhere in Zechariah we find the basic semantic notion of “standing before” a person expressed with the verb dm[, typically with ynpl: Zech 3,1 “And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before (ynpl dm[) the messenger of YHWH”. Zech 3,3 “And he was standing before (ynpl dm[w) the messenger”. Zech 3,4 “And he answered and said to the ones standing before (wynpl ~ydm[h) him, saying […]” 12 In a future study I intend to demonstrate that Zech 1,7-17 is best under- stood as an intertextual evocation of the “Song of the Sea” (Exod 15,1-19), which is undeniably militaristic in nature. 13 Compare E. MULLEN, Jr., The Assembly of the Gods. The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature (HSS 24; Chico, CA 1980) 231 with, e.g., BDB, 426; W. GESENIUS – F. BUHL, Hebräisches und aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament (Leipzig 171921) 312; DCH IV, 265; cf. HALAT II, 408. 14 STEAD, Intertextuality of Zechariah 1–8, 208, n. 53. A. HURVITZ (“The Date of the Prose-Tale of Job Linguistically Reconsidered”, HTR 67 [1974] 25-26), argues that a diachronic development occurred from ynpl bcyth in early biblical Hebrew to l[ bcyth in late biblical Hebrew, although this is disputed by I. YOUNG (“Is the Prose Tale of Job Late Biblical Hebrew?”, VT 59 [2009] 614-615).