{"id":69241,"date":"2020-01-27T23:34:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T21:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=69241"},"modified":"2023-08-27T14:18:17","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T11:18:17","slug":"prophetic-paronomasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophetic-paronomasia\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophetic Paronomasia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361,362],"acf":{"old_id":"69241","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64450,"related_cahpter":"406","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Of shofar-blowing and tent-pitching\r\n","content":"

In chapter 6, Jeremiah warns of the impending war:<\/span><\/p>\n

Flee for refuge, O people of Benjamin, out of the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the horn in Tekoa, set up a signal at Beth-hakerem! For evil is appearing from the north, and great disaster. Fair Zion, the lovely and delicate, I will destroy. Against her come shepherds with their flocks, they pitch tents all around her; each grazes the sheep under his care. (Jeremiah 6:1-3)<\/span><\/p>\n

The sense of doom is captured in the translation. And yet, this is one of those times where reading the verses in anything but the original Hebrew will leave something lacking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is that so? Because the verses above contain a play on words, repeated three times \u2013 but the translation does not reflect that. Let\u2019s take a look.<\/span><\/p>\n

The verb for \u201cblow (the horn)\u201d in verse 1 is <\/span>tik\u2019u<\/span><\/em>. This is the same root as the name of the town Tekoa (south of Jerusalem). So \u201cblow the horn in Tekoa\u201d has the same root repeated twice in a row.<\/span><\/p>\n

That same root appears in verse 3: \u201cpitch (tents)\u201d is <\/span>tak\u2019u<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i> So a person hearing this prophecy would hear these keywords repeated, and feel a pounding rhythm that added emphasis and urgency.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some cases, the Bible uses a wordplay with words that don\u2019t have a common origin. The message is still clear to the listener. But in this case, they are all related.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tak\u2019a<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>meaning \u201cto blow a horn\u201d is familiar to us from Rosh Hashana. A long blast of the shofar is called <\/span>tekiah<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i> Dr. Ernest Klein writes that the verb fully means “to thrust, clap, give a blow, blast”. Ben Yehuda\u2019s dictionary notes that perhaps the origin of the root is imitative, coming from the sound of the <\/span>tekiah<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The linguist Menachem Kaddari writes that the word also means \u201cto strike\u201d or \u201cto drive in (a sword or a peg)\u201d. This is the meaning in verse 3. And some scholars say that this is the origin of the name of the town of Tekoa \u2013 it originally meant \u201ca place of setting up tents.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In modern Hebrew two words that carry that sense of \u201cdriving in\u201d are <\/span>takua<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201cstuck\u201d and <\/span>teka<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 \u201c(electrical) plug.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69242,"id":69242,"title":"jer6-shofar","filename":"jer6-shofar.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer6-shofar.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/prophetic-paronomasia\/jer6-shofar\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer6-shofar","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69241,"date":"2020-01-27 21:33:48","modified":"2021-01-16 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