פֶּרֶק pèreq – plunder
Author(s):
Graham I. Davies
First published: 2010-07-31
Last update: 2024-08-15
Citation: Graham I. Davies, פֶּרֶק pèreq – plunder,
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: 2x HB (0/2/0); 0x Qum; 0x Sir; 0x inscr. (Total: 2).
- Nebiim: Obad 14; Nah 3:1;
Text doubtful
B.1 Powis Smith (1911:355) mentioned a proposal to emend the rare word in Nah 3:1 to a word פֶּרֶץ with a closer meaning to the preceding כחשׁ. But it is preferable to retain the transmitted text, which may well be supported by 4Q169 f3 4.ii:1, as well as by several of the versions. The failure of LXX and Pesh to understand it is no reason to emend it. Bernhard Duhm (1911:67, also cited by Smith) prefixed וָ to פֶּרֶק to pair it with [הֶרֶג] which he arbitrarily inserted before פֶּרֶק to balance the metre. Smith (1911:334-35) also favoured a connection, but with כחשׁ. It is, however, more likely that they belong to separate lines.
Qere/Ketiv: none
1. Root and Comparative Material
A.1 See also the entry for the verb פרק: Root and Comparative Material.
A.2 Nouns from the root prq occur sporadically in several Semitic languages, and with some frequency in certain dialects of Aramaic and in post-biblical Hebrew.
A.3 In Ugaritic the form prqt in KTU 4.205:3-4 is now thought to mean ‘loose, open, ungathered’ (of garments; cf. DULAT 1, 681).
A.4 In Akkadian only pīrqu is attested, first (by metathesis from paqrū or baqrū) at Nuzi in the sense ‘vindication’, and then, more relevantly, in late Babylonian for ‘redemption’, where it is plausibly seen as an Aram. loan-word (AHw, 867).
A.5 In post-biblical Hebrew פֶּרֶק (vowels certain?) occurs frequently with the meanings ‘joint, limb’ (and then of comparable parts of inanimate objects), ‘section, chapter’ (of a book) and ‘(period of) time, season’.1 A meaning ‘load’ is given for one passage (Yalk. Lam. 1000; cf. Jastrow, DTT, 1240). A different word, פֵּרָקוֹן (Jastrow, DTT, 1240), is used for ‘redemption’.
A.6 In Jewish Aramaic פִּרְקָא occurs with similar meanings to פֶּרֶק, but also once for a ‘cross-roads’ (TgJ Obad 14, based on the Heb.) and several times for a ‘session’ of a school (Jastrow, DTT, 1240, presumably derived from the meaning ‘[period of] time’). פִּרְקוּנָא is used for ‘redemption’, and likewise פּוּרְקָנָא (also for the payment itself). פַּרְקוּתָא is attested once in an early printed edition of TgJ 1 Sam 4:18, presumably in the sense ‘neck’, as in the Heb., but mss read פקותא here.
A.7 Syriac: Payne Smith (CSD, 465) lists no less than 16 derivatives of prq, most of them nouns and many of them related to Christian teaching about redemption and salvation. The latter clearly reflect a post-biblical development in the language and will not be discussed in detail. Potentially older meanings are attested for ܦܘܪܩܐ (pūrāqā), ‘looseness, division of a text’ (CSD, 439), ܦܪܝܩܘܬܐ (parīqūṯā), ‘distance, separation’ (CSD, 460), ܦܪܩܐ (perqā), ‘piece of cloth, bandage’ (CSD, 465), ܦܪܩܐ (prāqā), ‘division, joint’ (ibid.), ܦܪܩܘܢܐ (perqōnā), ‘small piece of cloth’ (ibid.), ܦܪܩܬܐ (pāraqṯā), ‘the back of the neck’ (ibid.), ܡܦܪܩܐܝܬ (maprqāʾīṯ, adv.), ‘at a distance’ (CSD, 293), and ܡܦܪܩܘܬܐ (maprqūṯā), ‘separation, removal’ (ibid.). It is of course possible, and even likely, that the Christian theological terms were based on an older secular (or Jewish) use of such words for ‘redemption’, as seems to be attested for other dialects of Aram. That apart, the nouns appear to refer to ‘separation’ and ‘that which has been separated from something else’ (even ‘back of the neck’ may be a specific case of the meaning ‘joint’, for which cf. ܦܪܩܐ/prāqāʾ). The CAL database adds the sense ‘garment’ for ܦܪܩܐ (perqāʾ).
2. Formal Characteristics
Noun: segholate, probably (cf. cognates) qitl (BL, §61aʺ-gʺ).
3. Syntagmatics
A.1 פֶּרֶק is never the subject of a verb. It follows the adj. מלא in Nah 3:1, which describes a city (Nineveh, cf. 3:7).
A.2 פֶּרֶק is preceded by the preposition על after the verb עמד qal in Obad 14, which implies that it refers to a place, and the continuation להכרית את־פליטיו indicates that it was a place for an attack on fugitives.
4. Ancient Versions
a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek translations (αʹ, σʹ):2
- ἀδικία, ‘wrongdoing, iniquity’: Nah 3:1LXX;
- ἀποτομία, ‘cutting off’, or μελοκοπία, ‘mutilation’: Nah 3:1σʹ;
- διεκβολή (pl.), ‘way out’: Obad 14LXX;
- ἐξαυχενισμός, ‘rebellion’: Nah 3:1αʹ;
- φυγαδεία (pl.), ‘banishment, exile’: Obad 14σʹ.
b. Peshitta (Pesh):
- ܡܩܒܬܐ (maqqaḇṯā), ‘tunnel, mine’: Obad 14;
- ܥܘܠܐ (ʿawlā), ‘iniquity, crime’: Nah 3:1.
c. Targum (Tg: J):
- ביזא, ‘dividing, plunder, spoil’: Nah 3:1J;
- פרקא, ‘part, section’: Obad 14J.
d. Vulgate (Vg):
- dilaceratio, ‘tearing apart’: Nah 3:1;
- exitus (pl.), ‘way out’: Obad 14.
A.1 LXX interprets contextually with a general negative word in Nah 3:1 and this is followed closely by Pesh. Its διεκβολή in Obad 14 could mean (LSJ, 423) either ‘mountain-pass’ (cf. Pesh) or ‘exit from a city’ (cf. Vg).
A.2 TgJ ‘plunder’ and Vg ‘tearing apart’ in Nah 3:1 interpret more precisely and in ways that correspond to meanings of the verb פרק. Vg uses lacero to render the verb פרק in Ps 7:3 and the presence of the root טרף in close proximity both here and there may have contributed to its interpretation (perhaps with help from Aquila and Symmachus, which point to wounding).
A.3 At Obad 14 TgJ renders with the Aram. equivalent, which generally means ‘part, section’ (cf. above Root and Comparative Material A.5-6), a meaning that scarcely fits the context: but Cathcart and Gordon (1989:101) give ‘at the crossroads’ here.
5. Lexical/Semantic Fields
A.1 In Nah 3:1 פֶּרֶק occurs in close proximity to expressions for hostility (דמים, כחשׁ) and especially with the noun טֶרֶף, which is used metaphorically both here and in the two preceding verses (2:13-14) to refer to the Assyrians’ captured treasures. In 2:13 טֶרֶף is the object of מלא piel, just as פֶּרֶק is governed by the adj. מלא here. Elsewhere the object of מלא (as a verb) is, inter alia, חָמָס, ‘violence’ (Ezek 7:23), and מֻטֶּה, ‘perversion (of justice?)’ (Ezek 9:9), both with עיר as subject as here.
A.2 The phrases which occur in close proximity to פֶּרֶק in Obad 14 are less informative. The combination of עמד qal with על is frequent and used in a variety of contexts, but 1 Kgs 20:38 (על־הדרך) and Jer 6:16 (על־דרכים, cf. NRSV ‘crossroads’) may have particular relevance. כרת hiph. seems not to be used elsewhere with פליט, but the latter is found with the similar נכה hiph. in narrative contexts (Josh 8:22; Judg 12:4-5, located at מעברות הירדן, ‘the fords of the Jordan’), and Ezek 7:16 speaks of פליטים taking refuge in the mountains (הרים).
6. Exegesis
A.1 Commentators and translations generally adopt different meanings for the two occurrences of this word, although both have a context of war. Obad 14 is part of a passage which is critical of the behaviour of the Edomites after the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, and פֶּרֶק is understood to mean a place where the Edomites waited (in ambush?) to capture the fleeing inhabitants. Both Bewer (1911:27, 42) and Wolff (1977:37) waver between ‘breaches (in the wall of the city)’ and ‘parting of the ways’,3 citing versional and etymological support for these renderings (on the translation and textual note, see B.2 below).
A.2 Neither Smith (1911:334-35, 355) nor Rudolph (1975:174-76) has any doubt about the meaning ‘plunder’ in Nah 3:1; in favour of it they cite the accusations in 2:10, 12-13 and parallels in Assyrian and Old Testament sources. Rudolph draws attention to the use of the verb in Ps 7:3 to refer to the action of a wild animal.
B.1 Rudolph deduced the meaning ‘narrow pass’ (which Marti had also considered) for Obad 14 from the sense ‘split’ which he (mistakenly) attributed to the verb פָּרַק, thinking of a point of entry to the Edomite mountains. LXX and Vg, which he also cited, scarcely support this meaning and it is also contrary to the impression given by v. 13 that the Edomites are being criticised for activities in the vicinity of Jerusalem itself.
B.2 Wolff translated פֶּרֶק as ‘way of escape’ (1977:15), which might be an acceptably imprecise way of showing his uncertainty between the two senses mentioned under A.1 (above). But his attempt to give an etymological justification for this, based on the occurrence of the verb פָּרַק in Gen 27:40, in a meaning ‘Ausschliff’ (‘escape route’?), is only very loosely related to that passage. Renkema (2003:182-83) similarly renders with ‘the escape route’ and provides a full discussion of the evidence, including the descriptions of similar perils for fugitives in Lam 4:18-19, 5:8-9. But his attempts to bolster the case for his translation with ‘the notion of division contained in the verb פרק’ and the (mis)interpretation of פֹּרֵק in Lam 5:8 as meaning ‘to escape’ (183 n. 282) are based on fragile foundations.
7. Conclusion
A.1 There is no doubt about the meaning ‘plunder’ in Nah 3:1 and it fits well with the idea of ‘violent removal’ which is common in uses of the related Heb. verb.
A.2 In Obad 14 the exact meaning remains uncertain. Modern commentators generally see פֶּרֶק as a word for a place, and this has the support of the ancient Versions and, at first sight, the context. More specific interpretations such as ‘breach’ or ‘fork’ (on a road) can appeal to meanings of cognates in other languages, but they do not easily correlate with clearly attested meanings of the verb פרק in BHeb. Perhaps it would be best to understand the word here in the sense which it has in Nah 3:1, i.e. ‘plunder’. The Edomites are then accused of waiting by piles of what they had taken from the city (cf. v. 13) to take prisoner the fleeing inhabitants.
Bibliography
For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.
Julius A. Bewer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Obadiah and Joel (ICC), Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Kevin J. Cathcart and Robert P. Gordon, The Targum of the Minor Prophets Translated with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus and Notes (ArBib, 14), Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Bernhard Duhm, Anmerkungen zu den Zwölf Propheten, Giessen: Töpelmann.
Albin van Hoonacker, Les douze Petits Prophètes, Paris: Gabalda.
Karl Marti, Das Dodekapropheton (KHAT), Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck).
Johannes Renkema, Obadiah (HCOT), Leuven: Peeters.
Wilhelm Rudolph, Micha – Nahum – Habakuk – Zephanja (KAT), Gütersloh: Mohn.
J. M. Powis Smith, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Micah, Zephaniah and Nahum (ICC), Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
Hans Walter Wolff, Dodekapropheton 3: Obadja und Jona (BKAT, XIV/3), Neukirchen: Neukirchener.
Notes
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Cf. Jastrow, DTT, 1239-40, for instances. The meaning ‘part, section’ is also claimed by Dupont-Sommer for some Jewish magical texts (cf. DNWSI, 943). ↩
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Aquila (αʹ) and Symmachus (σʹ) are given according to Field II. ↩
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For the latter, cf. BDB, 830; Marti 1904:236; van Hoonacker 1908:306-07 (cf. Arab. frq, fariq). ↩