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The Semi-Figurative Meaning of σκάνδαλα in Jdt 5:1
Assyrians’ threats of famine and thirst addressed to the Israelites in 4 Kgdms 18:27 and 2 Chr 32:11. In Isa 5:24, the disaster befalling a sinful nation is narrated by the visual image of straw burning on the fields (καυθήσεται καλάµη ὑπὸ ἄνθρακος πυρὸς καὶ συγκαυθήσεται ὑπὸ φλογὸς ἀνειµένης). In Joel 1:10-11.17, the military attack of the northern powers against Israel is illustrated by a plague of locusts. Besides other agricultural objects, the grain is depleted (τεταλαιπώρηκεν τὰ πεδία· πενθείτω ἡ γῆ, ὅτι τεταλαιπώρηκεν σῖτος, v. 10; θρηνεῖτε, κτήµατα, ὑπὲρ πυροῦ καὶ κριθῆς, ὅτι ἀπόλωλεν τρυγητὸς ἐξ ἀγροῦ, v. 11) and granaries ruined (ἠφανίσθησαν θησαυροί ... ὅτι ἐξηράνθη σῖτος, v. 17). Moreover, v. 9 openly expresses that the agricultural disaster “directly influences the conduct of cultic worship”19 (ἐξῆρται θυσία καὶ σπονδὴ ἐξ οἴκου κυρίου). The grain burning and gleaning is, along with the grape harvest, used for the description of the military actions of the Israelites against their adversaries as well (e.g. Judg 8:2; 20:4520; Joel 2:5). In other words, the Israelites too attacked the grain of their foreign enemies or even of their fellow Israelites. In Judg 15:16, Samson burned (ἐνεπύρισεν, v. 5) the fields and the crops of the Philistines. In 2 Kgdms 14:30-31, Absalom ordered his servants to burn Joab’s field of barley with fire (ἐµπρήσατε ... ἐν πυρί; ἐνέπρησαν; ἐνεπύρισαν ... ἐν πυρί, v. 30; ἐνεπύρισαν ... ἐν πυρί, v. 31) to force Joab to meet with him. In 4 Kgdms 3:19, the Israelites are instructed, among other things, to ruin the fields with stones to make them unproductive (πᾶσαν µερίδα ἀγαθὴν ἀχρειώσετε ἐν λίθοις)21. The destructive activity of the God of the Israelites against other nations in Joel 2:5 includes the burning of the fields (ὡς φωνὴ φλογὸς πυρὸς κατεσθιούσης καλάµην). The Israelites’ promises in Num 20:17 and 21:22 to pass the fields and vineyards of the Edomites and the Amorites without doing them any harm are the proclamation of a peaceful traversing of the lands of the foreigners and the confirmation that the agricultural destruction was one of the “unrestrained methods of warfare”22 in the ancient world. Indeed, famine (λιµός), the consequence of destroyed crops, often occurs alongside the dagger (µάχαιρα,
19
See PRINSLOO, Joel, 20. See SAMET, Imagery, 5-6. 21 Besides fire and stones, salt was also used to make the soil unable to sustain crops. Such a method was carried out by the Romans against Carthage where “the site was ploughed over with salt, allegedly to render it infertile for future generations” (GILLESPIE, War, 56). 22 GILLESPIE, War, 54. 20
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