פָּרָק pārāq – piece of meat
Author(s):
Graham I. Davies
First published: 2010-07-31
Last update: 2024-08-15
Citation: Graham I. Davies, פָּרָק pārāq – piece of meat,
Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2010 (update: 2024)
For a discussion of the lexical field ‘Deliverance’ as a whole, see on this site the Overview of SAHD entries for ‘Deliverance’ words by Graham I. Davies
Introduction
Grammatical Type: noun masc.
Occurrences: 1x HB (0/1/0); 2x Qum; 0x Sir; 0x inscr. (Total: 3).
- Nebiim: Isa 65:4;
- Qumran: 4Q385 f2 5-6; 4Q386 f1 i:5.
A.1 The two Qumran documents are both texts of 4Q Pseudo-Ezekiel and overlap where פרק occurs, enabling more of the total context to be seen. Only the first occurrence of פרק is extant in 4Q385, but the second can be confidently restored by comparison with 4Q386.
Qere/Ketiv
In Isa 65:4 ופרק is the Ketiv, but the Qere is ומרק and this is also the reading of 1QIsaa. מָרַק denotes broth (Judg 6:19-20; see further below on Versions and Exegesis). BHS retains the Ketiv, but the better attested Qere (‘broth’) is followed in many modern translations (Luther, KJV, RV, RSV, NEB, REB, NRSV, NIV; but not JB, ‘food’), as well as by BDB, 830. As a hapax legomenon in BH, however, the Ketiv is the more difficult reading and should perhaps be preferred. See further below, Exegesis B.1.
1. Root And Comparative Material
A.1 See פרק: Root and Comparative Material, and פֶּרֶק: Root and Comparative Material.
2. Formal Characteristics
*פָּרָק is a noun, presumed qatal-type (only construct form פְרַק survives in a vocalised text of Ancient Hebrew).
3. Syntagmatics
A.1 פרק is the subject of קרב qal, ‘come near’, in 4Q385 f2 5 (though the reading of the verb is somewhat uncertain and probably based on Ezek 37:7).
A.2 In Isa 65:4K פרק is in the construct state before פגלים,‘uncleanness’ (a genitive of the attribute, as in בשׂר פגול in Ezek 4:14).
A.3 פרק פגלים (Isa 65:4K) is the subject of a noun-clause, in which the complement is כליהם, presumably ‘in their vessels’ (adverbial indication of place). The sg. here might well be collective.
A.4 פרק occurs in a composite expression פרק אׄל פרקו, ‘one joint (shall come near) to another’ (4Q386 f1 i:5), which indicates that a פרק here forms part of a larger whole (though prior separation is also presupposed).
4. Ancient Versions
a. Septuagint (LXX):
- ζωμός (θυσιῶν), ‘soup (of sacrifices)’: Isa 65:4.
b. Peshitta (Pesh):
- ܛܘܫ (ṭwš) pael, ‘to soil, profane’, here apparently pass.: Isa 65:4, with ܘܡ݁ܛܘܫܝܢ ܒܫ̈ܠܕܐ ܡܐ̈ܢܝܗܘܢ (wmṭwšyn bšldʾ mʾnyhwn), ‘and polluted by corpses are their things’, as the rendering of וּפְ/מְרַק פִּגֻּלִ֖ים כְּלֵיהֶֽם (see A.2 below).
c. Targum (Tg: J):
- רְטַף/רְטַב, ‘juice, broth’:av1 Isa 65:4.
d. Vulgate (Vg):
- ius, ‘broth’: Isa 65:4, with et ius profanum in vasis eorum, ‘and profane broth in their vessels’, as the rendering of וּפְ/מְרַק פִּגֻּלִ֖ים כְּלֵיהֶֽם.
A.1 LXX, Vg and TgJ render by words meaning ‘broth, soup’ and are clearly based on the Qere ומרק (see Qere/Ketiv). LXX adds the interpretive gloss θυσιῶν, ‘(made from) sacrifices’ and apparently (mis)understood פגלים as a pass.part. qal of a verb פגל which occurs only in later Heb. and Aram. (Jastrow, DTT, 1133), hence rendering it by μεμολυμμένα, ‘defiled’. Since the verb פגל and the associated nouns are used in MHeb. and Aram. specifically of invalid sacrifices, this (mis)understanding could also have given rise to the addition of θυσιῶν (cf. TgJ). In any case Vg avoids any such specific connection.
A.2 The Peshitta has no reference to soup or broth and may therefore have been endeavouring to render the Ketiv. But, apart from its use of ܡܐ̈ܢܝܗܘܢ (mʾnyhwn), ‘their things’, for כליהם, its choice of equivalents (‘polluted’, if ܡ݁ܛܘܫܝܢ [mṭwšyn] is from ܛܘܫ [ṭwš], and ‘by corpses’ [presumably reading פגרים for פגלים]) is imprecise and probably based on guesswork inspired by a quest for a suitable parallel to ‘eating pig’s flesh’ in the previous stich (for the idea, cf. Num 19:14-15). There is no obvious etymological explanation for Pesh's understanding of פרק (or מרק) as meaning ‘polluted’. It is of course possible that it got it from LXX’s μεμολυμμένα, not realizing that this was intended as the equivalent of פגלים rather than פרק/מ, in which case the rendering is of no relevance to the semantics of פרק.
5. Lexical/Semantic Fields
A.1 In Isa 65:4 the parallel stich refers to the eating of ‘pig’s flesh’ (בשׂר החזיר), a forbidden dietary practice according to Lev 11:7-8 and Deut 14:8.
A.2 Other materials which are said to be ‘in vessels’ (with ב) are meat (חטאת, Lev 6:21), a מנחה (Num 4:16; Isa 66:20), ingredients for making bread (Ezek 4:9), קיץ (Jer 40:10), incense (Num 4:16), a mixture of solids and liquids (Gen 43:11, but the sense of כלים may be ‘baggage’), water (Num 5:17 [מים קדשׁים]; 1 Kgs 17:10), wine (Est 1:7; Jer 40:10), oil (Num 4:10; Jer 40:10). The list thus covers both solids and liquids, mainly but not entirely for human consumption, and items for use in both domestic and cultic situations (examples of כלי preceded by ב where it has a different sense are not included).
A.3 In 4Q385 f2 the expression פרק אׄל פרקו is preceded by עצם אל עצםו, ‘one bone to another’, which (with the wider context and its basis in Ezek 37, where עצם אל עצםו occurs in v. 7) suggests that a פרק is something like an עצם but not identical to it. The order of the expressions might be taken to mean that a פרק is something smaller than an עצם, which would also fit with both etymology and usage outside Ancient Hebrew.
6. Exegesis
A.1 Karl Marti (1900:401-02) and Wim Beuken (1989:67) leave open the possibility that פָּרָק is the original reading in Isa 65:4, rendering it ‘Brocken’ (‘crumbs’, pres. ‘small pieces’ [sc. of meat]) or ‘brokken’ (pres. the same). Both of them, like other commentators, interpret the consumption of this food as part of secret rituals, perhaps connected with the cult of the dead.
A.2 In 4Q385 and 4Q386 the context seems to require a reference to bones without flesh on them, and the placement after עצם (cf. Syntagmatics) points to ‘smaller bones, joints’ being meant. This fits a use of פֶּרֶק in later Heb. (see פֶּרֶק: Root and Etymology A.5), to which there are possible parallels in Syriac (cf. ibid., A.7). The BHeb. word מפרקת (q.v.), ‘neck(-bone)’, may also be connected with this, in view of the neck-bone’s composition from several small bones (vertebrae). The vocalisation of the Qumran texts being uncertain, it may be better to associate these occurrences with פֶּרֶק rather than פָּרָק, in view of the MHeb. vocalisation of a word with a similar meaning. One might even consider whether the vocalisation of the BHeb. word should also be reviewed, since the vowels in MT relate to the Qere ומרק.
B.1 Paul Volz (1932:277, 279) states his preference for the reading ומרק, saying that it even appears as the Ketiv in some mss. Claus Westermann (1969:399, 401) and John Goldingay (2014:427 n. 7) follow this reading without mentioning the problem.
7. Conclusion
A.1 פָּרָק, as the more difficult reading, is probably original in Isa 65:4 and in view of the parallel most likely refers to pieces of meat ‘torn off’ (cf. the meaning of the verb פָּרַק) a larger joint.
A.2 In 4Q385 and 4Q386 the meaning must be the ‘(bone) joint’ to which some cognates in Hebrew and possibly Syriac point (cf. Exegesis A.2). The word should perhaps be vocalised פֶּרֶק.
Bibliography
For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.
Wim A. M. Beuken, Jesaja IIIB (PredOT), Nijkerk: Callenbach.
John Goldingay, Isaiah 56-66 (ICC), London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark.
Karl Marti, Jesaja (KHAT), Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Paul Volz, Jesaia 2: Kap. 40-66 (KAT) Leipzig: Scholl.
Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66 (OTL) London: SCM.
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Jastrow, DTT, 1471. ↩