Tsumura (2020) "Running and Reading: A Reexamination of Habakuk 2:2c" (corrected version) (original) (raw)

2020, Write That They May Read: Studies in Literacy and Textualization in the Ancient Near East and in the Hebrew Scriptures: Essays in Honour of Professor Alan R. Millard, edited by Daniel I. Block, David C. Deuel, C. John Collins, Paul J. N. Lawrence. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2020.

Scholars have argued about the relationship between "running" and "reading, " in Hab 2:2c. Recently, W. Dietrich has suggested that "the one who reads, " namely the messenger, "should 'run forth' with the message on the tablet and make it known. " In the context where Habakkuk the prophet is commanded to "write and confirm" the vision (see my earlier article, ZAW 94 [1982] 294-95), it may seem natural to take the prophet assuming the role of God's messenger (as in Jer 23:21). But this interpretation is unlikely, in part because "write and confirm" and "run" have different subjects ("you" and "he"), and because Habakkuk is not so much a messenger for his God, as a plaintiff against his God (see "my complaint" in 2:1). The identity of the runner is clarified by the speaker-oriented particle "for" ‫ן(‬ ‫עַ‬ ‫מַ‬ ‫,)לְ‬ as in Exod 20:1, explaining why God, the speaker, commanded the prophet to write and confirm. A paraphrased translation of Hab 2:2c would be: "for the [messenger] who will read [it] aloud will be able to run with it!" 1. Tsumura, "Hab 2:2 in the Light of Akkadian Legal Practice. "