Ruth Fidler, «A Touch of Support: Ps 3,6 and the Psalmist’s Experience», Vol. 86 (2005) 192-212
Vv. 5-6 mark a turning point in Psalm 3, both structurally
and thematically, probably reflecting a significant personal experience. Due to
the mention of sleeping and waking (v. 6a) this experience is sometimes
interpreted as a dream in which the psalmist got word of his imminent
deliverance. Recently supported by a Qumran parallel that mentions dreaming
explicitly (11QPsa xxiv 16-17;B. Schroeder,
Biblica 81 [2000] 243-251), this argument nevertheless
seems questionable, given e.g. the tendency of later Judaism to attribute dreams
also to biblical figures that are not characterized in such terms in the Bible.
The main thrust of this article is to examine the psalm in comparison with
theophanic reports elsewhere in the Bible and in ANE literature. This analysis
shows the language of Psalm 3 to be compatible with an incubatory ritual that
culminates in a real experience of presence with a divine gesture of support.
These findings are related to the proximity to God that finds expression in the
psalms.
210 Ruth Fidler
Babylonian king Nabonidus (1), this occurs in a dream. The other
examples, as arranged below, reveal a growing distance from dreams.
(1) Adda-guppi (mother of Nabonidus): In her “Autobiographyâ€(69)
the queen-mother, a great devotee of the moon god Sin and his coterie
(Ningal, Nusku and Sadarnunna), recounts her devotional acts and her
petition that the moon god return to his temple in Harran, apparently
after it fell into the hands of the Babylonians and the Medes (610
BCE). The response came to her “in a dreamâ€: “Sin, the king of all the
gods put his hands on me saying ‘the gods will return on account of
you! I will entrust your son Nabonidus with the divine residence
of Harran; he will (re)build the temple Ehulhul and complete this
task […]’†(70).
(2) Gudea, (3) Ashurbanipal, and possibly (4) Dan’el: The reports
of divine encounters featuring these figures were cited above, under a.
In the first two cases divine physical gestures towards the addressees
were noted: Ningirsu “briefly touching†Gudea in his incubated temple
vision and Ishtar clasping and protecting Ashurbanipal in the night
vision of the πabrû-priest. The case of Dan’el is less certain since the
text earlier restored “[by the hand] Il takes his servant†(71) was later
reread “El took [a cup] “ (72).
The divine hand gestures towards the following theophany
recipients seem even more remote from dreams proper:
(5) Hattushili III (13th century BCE) relates in §4 (I:35-44) of his
so-called “Apology†(73) that when summoned “to the wheel†(ominous
(69) For the text (Nab H1B) see C.J. GADD, “The Harran Inscriptions of
Nabonidusâ€, AnSt 8 (1958) 35-92, esp. 48-49. On its characterization as “fictional
autobiography†cf. T. LONGMAN, Fictional Akkadian Autobiography. A generic
and comparative study (Winona Lake, IN 1991) 97-103.
(70) Ibid. II 5-11. The quotation follows the translation in ANESTP, 561.
(71) (KTU) 1.17 I:35 thus rendered by H.L. Ginsberg in ANET, 150. Cp. C.
VIROLLEAUD, La légende phénicienne de Danel (Mission de Ras Shamra 1; Paris
1936) 187 (= IID 1:35).
(72) MARGALIT, The Ugaritic Poem of AQHT, 118. For the complete
emendation proposal see D. PARDEE, “An Emendation in the Ugaritic AQHT
Textâ€, JNES 36 (1977) 53-56. Pardee refers to earlier proposals to replace “handâ€
by “cup†in publications by J.J. Jackson and H.P. Dressler as well as by S.E.
Loewenstamm. Though widely followed the emendation can perhaps be subject
to some reconsideration, but this cannot be undertaken here.
(73) KUB I 1 + duplicates; H. OTTEN, Die Apologie Hattusilis III. Das Bild der
Überlieferung (Studien zu den Boªazköy-Texten 24; Wiesbaden 1981) 6-7. The
following quotations are from Th.P.J. van den Hout’s translation based on Otten’s
edition in The Context of Scripture (eds. W. HALLO - K. L. YOUNGER, Jr.) (Leiden
1997) I, 200. Cf. also A. MOUTON, “L’importance des rêves dans l’existence de