Sounds like Shaddai in Song 2:7
Bob MacDonald in a comment to my post "
El Shaddai as the breasted god" (below) points to Song of Songs 2:7 and the "sounds like..." effects there. The verse reads:
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the gazelles or the wild does:
do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready! (NRSV)
הִשְׁבַּעְתִּי אֶתְכֶם בְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִַם
בִּצְבָאוֹת אוֹ בְּאַיְלוֹת הַשָּׂדֶה
אִם־תָּעִירוּ וְאִם־תְּעוֹרְרוּ אֶת־הָאַהֲבָה
The phrase concerned is the middle line above and transliterates as something like:
bitseva'ot 'o be'aylot hassadeh which (it is suggested) sounds like two names of God each with the preposition prefix
b:
יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת where
tseba'ot = "hosts" as in LORD of Hosts and
אֵל שַׁדַּי 'el shadday. It is this pair of possible "sounds like..." effects together in a context that speaks of "adjuring by..." that suggest an intended association.
(Biblical) Hebrew loves such effects. They are hugely common especially in prophetic speech and in poetry. However, it is only - as perhaps is the case in this verse - where there are pointers suggesting the association that we can have any confidence that it was either intended by the writer(s) or likely to have been perceived by the hearers.
(BTW, I think that in this case, as in the one
I discussed below, these sound effects do not tell us much about the
meaning of the words used - but they may, probably do tell us about the meaning effects of the passages concerned!)
Labels: bible, hebrew, song of songs