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אַח ʾaḥ – brazier

Semantic Fields: Utensils   
Author(s): M.D. Koster
First published: 2014-06-20
Citation: M.D. Koster, אַח ʾaḥ – brazier,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2014 (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Introduction

Grammatical type:
Occurrences: 3x HB (0/3/0)

  • Nebiim: Jer 36:22, 23 (2x).

A.1

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 Semitic:Perhaps Hamito-Semitic *ʾaḫ ‘fire’ (Egyptian 3ḫt; cf. Orel & Stolbova, HSED, 7).

Egyptian:A loan from Egyptian ʿḫ ‘brazier, firepan’ (Erman & Grapow, WÄS, vol. 1, 223) seems likely (Müller 1900, followed by e.g. Kelso, CVOT, 16, No. 34; Lambdin 1953, 146; Ellenbogen, FWOT, 21; HALAT, 28; HAHAT, 32; CEDHL, 16; NIDOT, vol. 1, 349), even though normally Egyptian ʿ does not correspond to Hebrew א. However, the latter argument is not conclusive because in this case two different laryngals in one short word were involved. The Egyptian ʿḫ was used for grilling (sacrificial) meat, burning incense and warming rooms. Especially the latter circumstance suggests that it was a fairly large brazier. The circumstance that it was also used to bake the typical flat bread of the Near East (in Egyptian: t-ʿḫ ‘brazier bread’) ties in with the translation of LXX, see below section 5.

Phoenician, Punic:Some authors refer to Punic ʾḥt šmm (KAI No. 145:4) but the meaning of this is hardly ‘the braziers of heaven’ and a connection with Hebrew אַח is highly uncertain (KAI, Bd. 2, 142; DISO, 9).

2. Formal Characteristics

A.1 [Will be added later.]

3. Syntagmatics

A.1 [Will be added later.]

4. Ancient Versions

a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek versions (αʹ, σʹ, θʹ):

  • Jer 36:22.23 [bis] ἐσχάρα (cf. → מִכְבָּר,5.) - LSJ, 699a: 1. ‘hearth, fire-place’; 2. ‘pan of coals, brazier’; etc.; GELS-L, 182b: ‘grate, grating’ (Exod 27:4 etc.) and ‘hearth, fire-place’ (Prov 26:21 ἐσχάρα ἄνθραξιν καὶ ξύλα πυρί for MT לְאֵשׁ וְעֵצִים לְגֶחָלִים פֶּּחָם ‘<as> charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire’). Cf. Curtis, AFT, 290: ‘... unleavened, or flat, breads (ἄρτος ἄζυμος) were baked on a brazier in ashes (ἐγκρυφίας and σποδίτης) or charcoal (ἀπανθρακίς) -- sometimes called simply ‘‘brazier-bread’’ (ἐσχάριτης)’. GELS-M, 294: ‘1. hearth ...; 2. grid or lattice-work forming the base of various structures’.

b. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • Jer 36:22 wnwrʾ symyn hww qdmwhy, ‘and they placed a fire before him’, perhaps inspired by Tg; Jer 36:23 [1e] wšdh bgwmrʾ dnwrʾ ‘and he threw it in the charcoals of the fire’ (cf. Rom 12:20) for MT אֶל ־הָאָח אֲשֶׁר אֶל ־הָאֵשׁ וְהַשְׁלֵךְ; gmwrtʾ(plur. gwmrʾ, cf. Nöldeke, Kurzgefasste syrische Grammatik, § 81): Brockelmann, LS, 121b-22a: 1. ‘pruna, carbo’; 2. ‘variolae’ ἄνθρακες; 3. plur. ‘particula hostiae’; Payne Smith, TS, 740-41: ‘pruna, carbo’ ἄνθραξ; Payne Smith (Margoliouth), CSD, 72a: ‘a coal, live coals’, gwmry dnwrʾ ‘fiery coals’, etc. (but 64b ad gwmryn: ‘burning coals’, cf. RSV ad Rom. 12:20); 36:23 [2e] dyqdt klh mgltʾ bnwrʾ dʿl qmynʾ ‘so that the complete scroll was burnt in the fire that was on the κάμινος’. The latter is a Greek loanword which designates a furnace, oven or flue (LSJ, 872). Because this is impossible here since the fire is on the qmynʾ, Payne Smith (Margoliouth) may have opted for a wider semantic range: ‘a stove, fire-place, metal (!, MDK) hearth’ (CSD, 508b).

c. Targum (Tg):

  • Jer 36:22 נורא וית ‘and the fire (before him they lit)’. For MT האח ואת Tg
    possibly read האשׁ ואת, because נורא is the normal rendering of אשׁ, but harmonisation cannot be excluded. Jer 36:23 [1e] דלגומרא לנורא, ‘onto the fire of charcoal’; a well-attested variant reading is דלגומרי לנורא ‘onto the fire of charcoals’ (plural, harmonising),for MT האח אל אשׁר האשׁ אל; 36:23 [2e] גומרי דעל נורא על ‘onto the fire which was over the charcoals’ for MT האח על אשׁר האשׁ על.
    גומרא (plur. גומרין) -- Jastrow, 223a: ‘burning, glowing coal’; Dalman, ANHT, 82b (sg. גומרתא): ‘glühende Kohle’ (Lev 16:12; 2 Sam 22:9). So the Tg thinks of a fire of glowing charcoal, but omits to specify the container.

d. Vulgate (Vg):

  • Jer 36:22, 23 [bis] arula[m] - ‘small altar’ (Lewis & Short, LD, 169); in v. 22 plena prunis ‘full of coals’ for MT מְבֹעָרֶת.

A.1

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

A.1 [Will be added later.]

6. Exegesis

6.1 Textual Evidence

A.1 The status absolutus of this noun is given alternately as אָח (like אָח I ‘brother’ and אָח II ‘aha!’, and ‘alas!’; so e.g. TPC; BDB; LHA; DCH) or אַח (with article: הָאָח; so e.g. BL § 263m; GB; KBL; HALAT; HAHAT). Fem., cf. Jer 36:22 מְבֹעָרֶת.

The word occurs in Jeremiah 36:22, 23[bis] only. It figures prominently in the story of the scroll (מְגִלַּת ־סֵפֶר, Jer 36:2 → מְגִלָּה) written by Baruch ben-Neriah, as dictated by Jeremiah, which culminates -- after its promulgation to the people in the temple and to the king’s dignitaries in the secretary’s chamber in the royal palace -- in it being read by Jehudi ben-Nethaniah (cf. v. 14) to king Jehoiakim himself in the court (v. 20), in the winter house/room (הַחֹרֶף בֵּית, v. 22, cf. Amos 3:15), in the ninth month (November/December) (cf. De Vaux, IAT, t. 1, 290). Before him the king had the אַח: לְפָנָיו וְאֶת ־הָאָח which had been kindled (מְבֹעָרֶת, v. 22).

Thus GKC §117l (readJer 3622 instead of Jer 3633 ad loc and in the Index, p. 585), cf. Joüon, GHB §125j (p. 370, ‘Remarque’); ‘The brasier before him was burning’, BDB, 29a. Others read וְאֵשׁ ‘and the fire’ for וְאֶת (e.g. HALAT, 97b; BHS ad loc; the remark ‘cf LXXPeshTg’ is misleading): ‘the fire in the brazier before him had been kindled’; or, with LXX (καὶ ἐσχάρα πυρὸς), הָאֵשׁ וְאָח for וְאֶת ־הָאָח: ‘während die geheizte Kohlenpfanne vor ihm brannte’ (Giesebrecht 1907, 200, who disposes of the reading וְאֶת of MT as ‘eine unnöthige, ja komische Weitschweifigkeit bei einer einfachen Sache’).

The אַח is used by Jehoiakim to destroy the scroll bit by bit: every three orfour columns (→ דֶּלֶת) that had been read by Jehudi, were cut off by him with a penknife (→ תַֹּעַר) and thrown (וְהַשְׁלֵךְ, inf. abs. as the continuation of a preceding finite verb, cf. GKC §113z) into the fire that was in the אַח (אֶל ־הָאָח אֲשֶׁר אֶל ־הָאֵשׁ), until the entire scroll was consumed (כָּל ־הַמְּגִלָּה עַד ־תֹֹּם) in the fire that was in the אַח (עַל ־הָאָח אֲשֶׁר עַל ־הָאֵשׁ, v. 23 [bis]).

There may have occurred some interchange of אֶל and עַל in v. 23 by assimilation: probably (the first) הָאָח אֶל should be read as הָאָח עַל, like (the second) הָאָח עַל, cf. LXX ἐπὶ (bis), Vg super arulam (for הָאָח אֶל; the second time in arula, for הָאָח עַל!). Tg and Pesh, however, only have dʿl for עַל (see ad 5. for their rendering of אֶל). For אֵשׁ followed by עַל, cf. Lev 1:7 and 6:5f. [12f.] (עַל ־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֵשׁ), Jer 11:16 (set [יצת Hiph.] fire to the tree [עָלֶיהָ]), and Ezek 21:36 [31] and 22:20 (with נפח ‘blow’). More often אֵשׁ is followed by בְּ, with יצת Hiph. (Jer 17:27, 21:14 etc.), נתן (Ezek. 30:8, 14, 16, etc.) or שׁלח Piel (Amos 1:4, 7, 10, etc.), or by מִן, with ירד (2 Kgs 1:10.12, etc.) or יצא (Lev. 9:24; 10:2; Num 16:35; 21:28, etc.).

Nothing is said about the size of the אַח, nor of the material from which is was made, ofthe kind of fuel that was burnt in it or of its movability. Kelso (CEVOT, 34) thinks that, as a king, Jehoiakim probably would have used a metal brazier, but a ceramic one ‘must not be completely ruled out’. As several columns of the scroll could be thrown into the אַח all at once and finally the whole scroll was consumed in it, the אַח must have been of some size (‘olla magna’, Gesenius & Roediger, TPC, 69a), not just a small fire pot or spirit stove, and not ‘super prunas suspensa’ (Zorell, LHA, 30a): the fire was in/on the pan, not under it. Perhaps the use of the preposition עַל ‘on’ also points to a fire-pan with a fairly wide and flat bottom, cf. the fire put or kept (up)on the altar, Lev 1:7; 6:5f. [12f.], and Vg translating אַח with arula, ‘small altar’ (in Jer 36:23, however, the RSV and other modern versions translate: ‘the fire <that was> in the brazier’; but Giesebrecht: ‘auf der Kohlenpfanne’ [bis]).

Some authors translate אַח as ‘hearth’ (see bibliography below), but this is unlikely. The king was seated (יֹושֵׁב, v. 22) and the אַח was positioned before him (לְפָנָיו, v. 22), so he must have bent over to throw the leaves he had cut off in the fire. Because leather does not burn well, it is likely that the scroll was made of papyrus (→ מְגִלָּה). Since a leaf of papyrus is very light, the distance between the king’s hand and the brazier cannot have been large, otherwise the pages would have fluttered around erratically. This argues in favour of a brazier on legs. Cf. King & Stager, LBI, 34: ‘This was probably a copper or bronze, three-legged hearth’. N.B.: הֶאָח in Isa. 44:16 חַמֹּותִי הֶאָח has been interpreted, already from LXX onwards, as an interjection: ‘aha!’ (cf. Ezek 25:3, 26:2, etc.), probably correctly so.

The rabbis did not know the meaning of the word anymore. Their guesses are recorded b. Shab., 20a (cf. Levy, WTM, Bd. 1, 54a).

Several medieval Jewish commentators, however, describe the אח as a metal brazier or frying pan (Rubiato Díaz et. al. 1991, 375).

6.2 Pictorial Material

A.1 Whereas clay burners were extensively used among Palestinians (Dalman, AuS, Bd. 4, Abb. 5, 6, 11, and Bd. 7, Abb. 34, 52a, 96, 98-100; Avitzur, 108-9, 116-7), metal braziers were too expensive for common people.

6.3 Archaeology

A.1 ‘The most common means of heating was, therefore, the brazier’, ‘in classical times there were no special devices for heating the home except the usual small portable fires with charcoal, the braziers’ (Forbes, SAT, vol. 6, 31, cf. 16f., 30, 61 [Rome], and 65 [Egypt, Mesopotamia], all mentioning charcoal; in ancient Palestine, however, wood and straw were preferably used, ibid., 15f., 64); charcoal (פֶּּחָם) was a costly fuel, cf. j. Ter., 45d; ‘Abod. Zar., 41a; Exod. R., 42 (99a); ‘It was also used in the portable stove or brazier in the King’s palace’ (ibid., 20, with notes 126-131). According to Kelso, the king probably would have been using a metal brazier, but ‘the common Israelite would employ a pottery one just as does the poor Arab today’. However, as ‘ceramic work, when highly decorative, could compete with metal ware’, a brazier of clay must not completely be ruled out (Kelso [34, p. 16], referring to the elaborately decorated incense altar found at Taanach and the cult shrines at Beth-shan and Megiddo; cf: ‘carrying <fire> in clay hearths’, Forbes, op. cit., 6, 2). For Kelso’s remark on ‘the stove family’, → כִּירַיִם, 8.

7. Conclusion

A.1 Many mysteries still remain around אַח which is de facto a hapax legomenon, though not recognised as such by Greenspahn, HLBH and Cohen, BHL. In Jer 36:22, but also in v. 23, confusion and interchange with אֵת and/or אֵשׁ could have taken place in the textual tradition, see Section 5 on the ancient versions.

Analysis of the context learns that the אַח which was standing before the king was probably a metal brazier on three or four legs. As it is not said in v. 22 that the king ‘was seated before the אַח’ but that somehow the אַח ‘was positioned before the king (לְפָנָיו)’, it seems most likely that a movable brazier or fire-pan had been placed in front of the king, cf. Vulg. et posita erat arula coram eo and Pesh. wnwrʾ symyn hww qdmwhy; cf. Giesebrecht: 1907, 200: ‘während die geheizte Kohlen-pfanne vor ihm brannte’. The Egyptian word from which אַח was probably taken over suggests a fairly large brazier, as does the number of leaves the king cut off and burnt in the אַח.

Also the ancient versions, especially LXX, point in the direction of a fairly wide firepan (Section 5), as do some medieval Jewish commentators (Section 6). The rendering ‘brazier’ may be adopted therefore with a fair amount of confidence.

Bibliography

Giesebrecht 1907: F. Giesebrecht, Das Buch Jeremia (HKAT, 3: 2/1), Göttingen 21907.

Lambdin 1953: T.O. Lambdin, ‘Egyptian Loan Words in the Old Testament’, JAOS 73:145-55.

Lundbom 2004: J.R. Lundbom, Jeremiah 21--36* (AncB, 21B), New York.

Müller 1900: W.M. Müller, ‘Zwei ägyptische Wörter im Hebräischen’, OLZ 3:51-53.

Rubiato Díaz 1991: T. Rubiato Díaz et al., ‘Recipientes bíblicos IV: ʾAḤ, ʾASÛḴ ‘, Sef*. 51:369-87.

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