Eugene P. McGarry, «An Underappreciated Medical Allusion in Amos 6,6?», Vol. 90 (2009) 559-563
In the ancient Mediterranean world, olive oil and wine had medicinal as well as culinary and (in the case of olive oil) cosmetic applications. Amos may be playing on the multiple uses of these items when he condemns banqueters for drinking wine and anointing themselves while ignoring the “wound of Joseph”.
An Underappreciated Medical Allusion in Amos 6,6? 561
meaning of rbv, “break, fracture†(Bruch), they, like the other twentieth-
century equivalents, evoke a breach of the body politic. Among French
versions, the late-eighteenth-century Bible du Port-Royal neatly expresses the
mood of the banqueters “qui êtes insensibles à l’affliction de Joseph,†but in
twentieth-century translations it is the ruine (16) or désastre (17) of Joseph that
is ignored. In Spanish, the Reina-Valera tradition offers the etymologically
appropriate quebrantamiento (breaking) (18), which a recent literary transla-
tion replaces with desastres (19). Among Italian versions, the seventeenth-
century Diodati Bible favors an etymological equivalent, rottura (break,
rupture) (20), while the nineteenth-century Martini translation describes the
damage to Joseph as an afflizione (affliction) (21). But recent translators have
chosen terms that point to political misfortune, such as sfacelo (collapse,
ruin)(22) and rovina (ruin) (23). Indeed, a contemporary Israeli study of Amos
minimizes the medical import of rbv, explaining that in the present context
the noun bears the sense of hrx (distress, calamity) or ˆwsa (disaster,
catastrophe) (24).
This brief survey suggests that earlier translations are more likely to
render rbv in a way that preserves its medical overtones. In the Anglophone
tradition, the Authorized Version of 1611 presents “afflictionâ€, which, like
Luther’s Schaden or indeed Port-Royal’s “afflictionâ€, may refer to bodily
harm as well as to more abstract injuries. Combining this term with an
etymologically faithful rendition of wljn yields, “But they are not sickened by
the affliction of Josephâ€. By restoring the medical connotations of the Hebrew
clause, this translation better captures the metaphor used to describe the
indifference of the lolling banqueters. At the same time, however, recognition
of the medical character of the metaphor prompts another question: Why does
the prophet’s criticism of the feast in vv. 4-6 climax with an allusion to illness
and wounds? Is there a close relation between the prophet’s diagnosis of the
banqueters’ frame of mind and the list of symptoms — reclining on couches,
(16) La Bible de Jérusalem avec guide de lecture (Paris 1979) 1425: “mais ils ne
s’affligent pas de la ruine de Josephâ€.
(17) E. DHORME et al. (trans.), La Bible. L’Ancien Testament (Paris 1956-1959) II, 752:
“et ne s’affligent pas du désastre de Josephâ€.
(18) Casiodoro de Reina’s “Bear Bible†of 1569 reads, “ni se afligen por el
quebrantamiento de Iosephâ€.
(19) L. ALONSO SCHÖKEL (trans., with the collaboration of J.M. VALVERDE), Doce
profetas menores (Madrid 1966) 76: “y no os doléis de los desastres de Joséâ€.
(20) Diodati: “e non sentite alcuna doglia della rottura di Giuseppeâ€.
(21) Martini: “veruna compassione non hanno dell’afflizione di Giuseppeâ€.
(22) La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dai testi originali con note a cura del Pontificio Istituto
Biblico di Roma (Firenze 1957-1958) VII, 252: “ma dello sfacelo di Giuseppe non si dan
pena!â€
(23) H. SIMIAN-YOFRE, Amos. Nuova versione, introduzione e commento (I Libri
Biblici, Primo Testamento 15; Milano 2002) 125: “ma non si dolgono per la rovina di
Giuseppeâ€. SIMIAN-YOFRE, Amos, 132, also paraphrases the clause thus: “Non si dolgono
per la distruzione di Giuseppeâ€.
(24) M. WEISS, The Book of Amos (in Hebrew) (Jerusalem 1992) I, 198; II, 367, n.166.
Weiss cites the use of rbv in Isa 15,5; 30,26; Jer 4,6.20; Lam 2,11.13. In Jer 4,6, rbv is
paralleled by h[r, and Jer 4,20 also seems to use rbv in the general sense of “catastropheâ€,
as does Isa 15,5. But in Isa 30,26 rbv is used metaphorically of a wound that will be bound
(vbj), in parallel to hKm.