Phillip Lerner, «Redefining h)lth. An Assurance of Israel’s Return
to the Land in Jethro’s Covenant», Vol. 87 (2006) 402-411
Though it is recognized that Exod 18,1-12 contains treaty making elements, there
seems to be very little evidence of the nature of this treaty. The term h)lth is reexamined
and redefined as “the suffering that is encountered due to the helpless
nature of being forsaken”. The phrase wnt)cm r#) h)lth lk, found in Exod 18,8,
is demonstrated to be a technical phrase with certain common characteristics that
is used as surety that Israel will be fully restored to their land. In addition to
providing more details of Jethro’s covenant, this phrase, in combination with
several other terms in Exod 18,1-12, narrows the possibilities regarding the
covenant’s nature and function.
Redefining halth 407
enemy here is gravity. The sluggard abandons his hand to gravity, “he gives
up returning it to his mouth†(26).
To recap, hal may be defined as “forsake, give up on, abandonâ€. We have
seen various aspects of the word use that fill in this definition. Primarily, hal
is used as a basic action, “to give up on doing something, to grow sick and
tired ofâ€. However, when God or another deity is the subject of this verb, then
its use is often at a point of covenantal transition; he will no longer bear their
wrong actions or intentions. This often results in a covenantal rift, exile,
helplessness, and abandonment. All of these are the result of God’s cessation
of enacting the benefits of the covenant. Also, hal possesses a directional
nature, of abandoning an object to gravity, so to speak.
2. halt
Having established this new translation of hal with its range of meaning
and background of intent, we shall now attempt to establish a new
understanding of halt, which is used only five times throughout the Bible (27).
Twice halt is used in an idiomatic fashion, but the three specific uses of the
phrase wntaxm rça halth lk show a shared technical meaning when used. We
will briefly examine the idiomatic uses and then proceed to focus on the more
technical uses in Exod 18,8; Num 20,14; and Neh 9,32.
halt may be redefined as “the suffering that is encountered due to the
helpless nature of being forsakenâ€. This helpless state of abandonment is
often accompanied by “exileâ€, in this case not so much an expulsion as a loss
of favor in the land, which necessitates moving on or leads to capture.
However, when this state is reversed, there is a process of restoration that
includes a resumption of protection and return to the land. If this restorative
process can be shown to be active, then its results are essentially guaranteed.
The first idiomatic usage is found in Lam 3,5 which describes the man
who has seen affliction, declaring that “he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulationâ€. Obviously, this translation can stand as it is
or accept our new one in its place without much debate. The context of
Jerusalem’s destruction only adds to the proposed meaning of the suffering
of abandonment (28).
It is in Mal 1,13 that we have a greater difficulty applying our definition.
The Lord describes Israel’s contempt for the altar, to which they have brought
stolen or maimed animals, declaring, ““What a weariness this isâ€, you say,
and you sniff at me, says the Lord of hostsâ€. However, Israel doesn’t seem to
have fully forsaken the altar, an argument that is strong for “weariness†as
opposed to our own. However, technically it is the altar that should have been
abandoned. It no longer provides them with the good things they want; it is no
longer effective. Though the Lord’s complaint is that his people have
abandoned him, we must look at their dialogue in order to understand why
(26) Jer 20,9 contains a similar example, “then within me there is something like a
burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannotâ€. Here there
is also an implied outward release, though no explicit mention of a downward component.
(27) Exod 18,8; Num 20,14; Neh 9,32; Lam 3,5; Mal 1,13.
(28) “So this term may contain a strong hint of the exile, or the hardship on the road to
the exileâ€. A. BERLIN, Lamentations. A Commentary (Louisville 2002) 91.