Love Conquers All: Song of Songs 8:6b–7a as a Reflex of the Northwest Semitic Combat Myth

Abstract

Scholars have often noted YHWH's apparent absence from Song of Songs. At best, he appears under name Yah in difficult and morphologically frozen term ... in Song 8:6. In this article, I go beyond ... to suggest that plays role of YHWH in Song. Using Calvert Watkins's work on inherited formulae, I argue that Song 8:6b-7a draws on Northwest Semitic to identify with YHWH, victorious divine warrior. As part of this argument, I identify three inherited formulae in Hebrew Bible, Baal Cycle, and later Christian and Jewish literature: Leviathan, fleeing twisting serpent, rebuke Sea, and as Death. Within Song, phrase as Death connects this passage with Baal Cycle, while references to ... and ... evoke scenes of mythic from rest of Hebrew Bible. This interpretation, I argue, also has mythic resonances in adjuration refrain in Song 2:7, 3:5, and 8:4 and phrase sick with love in Song 2:5 and 5:8.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)...For is as strong as Death, jealousy harsh as Sheol.Its flashes are flashes of fire, flame of Yah.Many waters cannot quench love, neither can rivers drown it.1 (Song 8:6b-7a)The Song of Songs does not explicitly refer to God of Israel under name YHWH or any other epithet. The noun ... in Song 8:6 may contain shortened form of Tetragrammaton, but scholars debate interpretation of this difficult term.2 In this article, I go beyond ... to suggest that YHWH is present in Song in form of love. Drawing on Calvert Watkins's work on inherited formulae, I argue that Song 8:6b-7a utilizes language and imagery from Northwest Semitic to identify with YHWH as victorious divine warrior. As part of this argument, I identify three inherited formulae in Hebrew Bible, Baal Cycle, and later Christian and Jewish literature: Leviathan, fleeing twisting serpent, rebuke Sea, and as Death. Within Song, phrase as Death connects this passage with Baal Cycle, while references to ... and ... evoke scenes of mythic from rest of Hebrew Bible. By way of conclusion, I demonstrate importance of this reading for interpreting adjuration refrain in Song 2:7, 3:5, and 8:4 and phrase sick with love in Song 2:5 and 5:8.I. THE NORTHWEST SEMITIC COMBAT MYTHAs many commentators have noted, Song 8:6b-7a employs rich array of cosmic language to highlight power of (...). In these verses, is set against death (...), Sheol (...), mighty waters (...), and rivers (...), and likened to fire (...) and flame (...). Most commentators, however, downplay mythic significance of these verses, preferring to treat them as theological or philosophical statement about nature of love. Othmar Keel, for example, claims that the statement about being as strong as death cannot have mythical sense in context of Song, but to large degree it owes its strength and intensity to several myths about struggle between powers of life or and those of death. Meanwhile, J. Cheryl Exum calls these verses a succinct credo on subject of love.3 Yet all of these terms and concepts are part of crosscultural tradition of myths, as will be shown now.Many of myths from ancient Near East focus on divine combat. In Enuma Elish, Marduk defeats Ti'amat (the Deep) and her serpentine allies; in Baal Cycle, Baal challenges Yamm (Sea) and Mot (Death) for kingship of gods; and in several passages in Hebrew Bible, YHWH battles variety of aqueous foes, including Yam (Sea), Tehom (the Deep), and Leviathan.4 Traditionally, scholars have explained similarities between these myths in terms of narrative typology and cultural contact. The Enuma Elish, Baal Cycle, and passages from Hebrew Bible are all versions of single combat myth archetype. …