American Journal of Semitic Languages and
Literature 39 (1922-23) 89-108.
Public Domain.
THE HEBREW MASAL
BY ALLEN HOWARD
GODBEY
My studies in Hebrew ritual problems
have led me to the con-
clusion that one of the most
universal ceremonial words has thus far
been overlooked. There are two reasons for this.
First, the influ-
ence of the King James
version. Finding the "Book of
Proverbs"
entitled ylwm, the tacit assumption
was that masal
expressed only
verbal likenesses. The existence of a
"pantomime" masal
was not
recognized; that the performance of a symbolical
action was tech-
nically called a masal has been
passed over. The second reason is that
in fragments of priestly procedure as we have them
the masal
has
been taken for granted; the performer of a kipper, an ‘asarah, a
sabbath, might use any one of
various appropriate mesalim
known to
him. In the Babylonian Surpu collection, we know of a
few such
appended to one series—the officiator could take
his choice. But as
the performance of a masal was not restricted to the
temple ritual,
it is not strictly a priestly term (as scholars
have been using
the word priestly). The following collection of
principal data tells
its own story. That we are dealing with much that
scholars call
sympathetic magic need not surprise or disturb.
Considering
Hebrew
antecedents and environment, how could it be otherwise?
There
is no difficulty in explaining its presence. Were it not present,
we would have no rational explanation of that
fact.
Perhaps we should employ the word
"talifice" ("so shall it be
done") for an acted masal. For the verbal masal,
"proverb" is not
an adequate translation, as all agree. "Likening," or "comparison"
is technically more accurate.
In Gen. 37:5 if. Joseph tells a
dream of the grain-sheaves of his
brethren doing obeisance to his. The brethren at
once reply, "Shalt
thou indeed be king over us? or
shalt thou be anything like that to
us?" (masol timsol). Next, sun, moon, and eleven
stars bow to him.
It
is at once construed the same way The narrative
establishes the
fact that for the compiler such sheaf-action or
star-action was a masal.
89
90 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES
It
shows his belief in portents. It shows that his principle of inter-
pretation of a portent was that
its masal
or "likeness" was sure to
occur in real life. We are told that Jacob paid
careful attention to
this dabar (oracle?), vs. 11. We may recognize that the compiler
would also call the dream of either butler, baker, or
Pharaoh a masal,
were he asked for a technical term; its
"like" was sure to follow.
This
ancient principle we have so far lost faith in that we say "dreams
go by contraries."
Take next an acted masal: Joash's interview
with the dying
Elisha, II
Kings 13:14 ff.
Too feeble to
act himself, the prophet
acts as master of ceremonies—the king's hands acting
for him as the
prophet held them. An arrow is shot toward the
eastern foe or
place of battle, and the king commanded to complete
the rite by
striking the ground. Then he is angrily told that
his victories are
limited by the number of his ceremonial strokes.
Any Central
African
"fetishman," making
"war-medicine" today, would reason
likewise. So would the King of Babylon, Ezek.
21:21. For the
present inquiry it is immaterial whether such
thought is Elisha's,
or an invention of the narrators. In fact, in the
latter case, it would
be established that the efficacy of such
"war-medicine" was believed
in centuries after Elisha's
death. Then if we turn to I Kings 22:11,
we understand that Zedekiah was making
"war-medicine" against
the same Syrian foe, with his horns of iron. In
neither case is the
word masal used: in each
case the "like-this" idea dominates.
Take then Ezek. 24:3: mesol a masal; then explain
it to the gazing
public, vss. 6-14. Here the masal is the
pot-boiling ceremony; the
terminology is definite. Turning then to Ezek.
21:1–5 (A.V., 20:
45-49),
we find the prophet "sprinkles" (fire) toward Teman
and the
forest of Negeb, and
announces a fire that shall utterly destroy it.
The
prophet demurs on comprehending his instructions: "People
already say of me, He is a memassel mesalim!" a mighty masal
performer.
I think we must recognize that for
the superstitious masses such
men as Ezekiel were powerful magicians, who were
not simply
warning of ruin but performing terrible
incantations to bring it about.
It
is thus I understand Ezekiel's demurrer. Yet if the prophets
abandon such ancient mummeries, who will heed?
On the other
THE HEBREW
“MASAL” 91
hand continuing them only arouses counter-magic; so
what was
gained? Some great Hebrew preachers perished, not for
what they
said, but for what they did—working magic for the
overthrow of the
state, as medieval scientists were deemed "in
league with the devil."
Their
symbol-lessons against the frauds of the time were only "fight-
ing the devil with
fire"—a game in which the devil always has the
best of it. One day the Hebrew preacher will see it.
Further evidence of a masal as "war-medicine"
is afforded by the
Balaam story. His specific task is to
cast such a spell over
that Balak shall easily
defeat them, as all recognize. Undertaking
this, he four times chants a masal, Num. 23:7, 18; 24:3, 15.
Let
us observe at once that in so doing he would be a mosel. The accom-
panying action is not certainly
specified, but we may have a hint in
vs.
23: "There is no serpent against Jacob, nor any cutting up
(kasam) for
serpents." I suspect that he did "call
serpents," and fail; such pre-
tenders, called ha wy, are still in the same region.
Probably such art
is in Amos' mind when he makes the Lord exclaim,
"Though they
be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea,
thence will I command
the Serpent, and he shall bite them," Amos
9:3. We may recall
fiery serpents sent into
"cutting up," observe the covenant ritual of Abraham and
Jeremiah
(Gen.
15:9 ff.; Jer. 34:19), and the cutting up of an ox as
an impreca-
tion or masal by Saul, I Sam. 11:7. We
may ask if the preliminary
"sacrifice" of Balak was the masal that Balaam
hoped to make effec-
tive by incantation or
"vision": "cutting up" animals as Saul and
Ezekiel
did.
Continuing with
credited with being effective, and is called a masal, Num.
21:27.
Sihon had captured Heshbon,
"for thus ('because') oracled the
moselim," and the chant
suggests that fire-flinging and arrow-shooting
were a chief feature of the accompanying ceremony.
The writer
credits the masal with being effective: the
performer is a mosel;
and this is the official title of Sihon in Josh. 12:2, 5. This reminds
us that one who would aspire to Semitic leadership
is surest of success
if credited with unusual magical powers; and that
secular and sacred
functions often combine in an oriental leader. The
words masal
92 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES
and mosel are unusually prominent in the
word seems to be a Moabite official title a long
time. In the Mesha
story, II Kings 3:27, Mesha
cuts up his own son upon the wall as a
mighty "war-medicine" (compare the Roman
story of the self-
immolation of Decius). In
consequence there came a terrible keseph,
"cutting to pieces," upon
is the technical term for the penalty of violating
the "covenant cut"
in vss. 11, 15, 16 (cf.
Gen. 15:8–18; Jer. 34:18–19), as also in Josh.
22:18,
20. So every such treaty involves a masal—"so shall the
violator of this oath be cut to pieces."
This penalty for broken faith
is
in Isa. 34:2; 54:8; 57:16; 60:10; 64:9; Zech. 1:2;
Gen. 40:2;
41:10.
Consider again the suggestion above as to an actual masal
of Balak, invoking the
seven fates and cutting up an animal before
each. And in Isa. 16 1 we read, "Send a lamb to the mosel of the land
from Sela' toward the
wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of
foregoing sort of ceremony: "It is time for
the Grand Magician to
get busy!"
With Balaam's acknowledged failure
to find any iniquity in
to conjure with, Num. 23:21, contrast Hab. 2:6, where the gathering
foemen are pictured as "chanting their (war-)masal,"
using all the
cruelty and treachery of
"The
like shall come upon thee." Such requirement is made by
magicians everywhere. In the Babylonian Surpu texts it is
a sine
qua non.
In Sargon, Cylinder 29, we read Kullat nakiri isluhu imat muti,
"all his enemies he sprinkled with the poison of death."
I understand
this to describe the success of similar
war-medicine. Nergal-sharezer,
in Cambridge Cylinder (KB, III, 2, 72), says that in the opening of
his reign Girra, the
Plague-God, gave him his mighty weapons for the
protection of his land and people. Thus the king
had "a covenant
with Death, and an agreement with Sheol," such as was fashionable
in
of it being called moselim, Isa.
28:14–15. Nergal-sharezer explains
that he set up a pair of sirussu (mus russu?)
at each of the four gates
of the kigallu (= Aralu) as protectors of
Esagila and Ezida; as no
king before did. Limnim u aibim izannu imat muti, "upon the
THE HEBREW
"MASAL"
93
wicked and hostile they rain the poison of
death." These symbolisms
of the Underworld, Powers of Death and Darkness,
an innovation
at Esagila and Ezida, point to oscillations between the cult of such
powers and the cult of their enemy, the Rising Sun. It
must have
been such a dragon that Hezekiah destroyed at
torically, Nergal-sharezer's
statement probably means that at his
accession a terrible plague was ravaging his
hostile neighbors.
With this "hailing or raining
the poison of death" upon a foe,
group the birik limutti, "lightning of evil," oft invoked in
Assyrian
imprecations, and the phrase imtu burrudani in
some broken passages
of the Harper letters. In [660] Bu. 91–5–9–15, Adad-sum-usur
says (break) BUR.RU.DA. mes damkuti(?) ma-a-du-ti ni-ip-pa-as,
“we performed many favorable BUR.RU.DA.-mes,” whether
offensive or defensive rituals cannot be
determined. But in [18]
K
490 the order of the king (broken) has been relative to the per-
formance of imtu bur-ru-da-a-ni on the 24th of the month.
Marduk-
sakin-sum replies that it was not
done. Many tablets are in readi-
ness: . . . . as soon as
king orders, in five or six days. . . . If
the king orders performances ana imtu bur-ru-da-a-ni
in the month
Tebet . . . . and as to the
instructions sa imtu bur-ru-da-a-ni which
the king commanded, saying, Send to
I
did not send . . . . and those tablets of instructions
(program)
not complete(?) let (--) bring with him. On the 2d
day of Tebet
let the king perform . . . . on
the 4th day let the crown prince
perform . . . . on the
6th day let the people perform . . . . (four
broken lines). It will be observed that the time of imtu burrudani
here is the time of midwinter storms—near Christmas:
the proper
time either to invoke their aid, or to cantillate against them. Again
the invocation first by king, then by crown prince,
then by all people,
may be compared with the like order of public
petition by shah
and by people in modern
(Hajji
Baba 305–6); I Kings 8:35f. The Burrudani of the
forego-
ing tablet imply matters of
national interest at midwinter solstice.
Again
the imtu burruddni is in the broken [11] K 643 and probably in
K [25] K 639. It appears that the
Sumerian BUR.RU.DA, familiar
as an incantation term, has been adopted and a
Semitic plural form
used in the Sargonid
letters. In a SAG-Ba
SAG-ba
incantation
94 THE
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES
published by Zimmern
(ZA, XXVIII, 75 f.) the colophon line reads
INIM-INIM-ma ZI-SUR-ra NIG-H UL-GAL BUR.RU.DA-kam.
But
the banishing of evil is by "smiting it = strike in the face, shatter,
break, blow away, annihilate." The ritual is not
the establishing of a
passive barrier, but evoking a powerful
repellent. The imtu burrudani
then suggests "hailing poison or death"
(Heb. bered
= "hail") as in
previous cases. Such ceremony could be either
offensive or defensive.
In
HABL [977] K 350: "with regard to the procedures which the
king directed, . . . . sighing
of Death in the palace (cf. mehumath
maveth of I Sam. 5:11) . . . .
in the month Kisilimu we did
so
.
. . , plague, sickness not approach the house of men, u kispu
BUR.RU.DA-mes ma'aduti nitapas." In Sabatu
were
NAM
BUR-BI, to ward off evil, then special ceremonies on the first of
Adar,
employing images of Anu, Namtar,
Death, Latarak (plague?),
clay substitutes for the man of different clays;
thirteen different
substances (AJSL, XXVIII, 113), seven of each one.
Note the Fate
and Death covenant, as in Isa.
28:14–15. (Compare the nocturnal
fife-kaditu ceremony to call up a
tremendous storm against the
Assyrian,
Isa. 30:29–33; elaboration requires a separate
paper).
This
Adar or mid-February ritual concludes distress-ceremonies
begun with B UR.RU.DA-mes in November. It suggests
comparison
with a storm-omen text published by Weidner (Babyloniaca, VI,
96) :
If
a reed tornado sweep the land, the command of a
powerful enemy will
encompass
it,
If
a cattle tornado sweep the land, the usurper will be
overthrown,
If
a sheep and goats tornado sweep the land, it will be weakened—the
dom of the land will pass away,
If
a jar tornado sweep the land,—overthrow of the kingdom.
Weidner
thinks such expressions refer to fancied resemblances in the
clouds or to objects moved by the wind. It is fair to
ask if they do
not refer to various rituals for raising a storm.
With this omen text
compare another, cited by Waterman, AJSL, XXIX,
20:
ana musi sa-ri sutu iskun
iskun-ma,
im-sur im-sur-ma. izziz- izziz-ma
ip-ru-ud ip-ru-ud-ma, u-sa-pi-ih,
rubu ina harrani illaku mimma sumsu
busu
kat-su ikassad.
THE HEBREW "MASAL" 95
"When
the south wind blows all night, and having blown all night continues,
and as it continues becomes a gale, and from a gale
increases to a tempest,
and as a tempest does sweeping damage: the prince
on whatever expedition
he goes will obtain wealth."
Compare
the storm-omen to David, II Sam. 5:23–25, and continually
recurrent thunderstorm theophanies
of Yahweh, in O.T. There has
been overemphasis upon the Storm-God theory because of
inattention
to storm-producing ceremonies. Yahweh, ba’al or Adad, etc., would
be alike invocable. With
the use of paradu
in foregoing Assyrian
oracle, note that a southern dialect might use baradu; and that
B
UR.RU.DA also might be PUR.RU.DA in another dialect. Thus
while it is established as an old Sumerian ritual
term of repulsion
(Langdon,
Babyloniaca,
II, 107), Semitic borrowers would be pretty
surely attracted to it by its formal identity with
their own baradu,
paradu. Compare Heb. bered, Arab. bardun,
Syr. bardo, Eth. barade, =
"hail"; Arab. baruda, "to hail, be
cold"; and Isaiah's ritual usage
of the word, 32:19: "and it shall hail
mightily (barad beredeth),
upon
the fortress [reading ryf for rfy, as the parallelism suggests] and
utterly overwhelm the city." The form of
statement, and the
result, is identical with Waterman's text above. Are
we to translate
ib-ru-ud ibrud ma "hail
mightily"? Compare with these storm-
omens, Job 38:22–23: "Hail and snow are stored
for the time of
affliction, for the day of battle and war";
and the Flood Legend,
189–90;
Bel promises Pir-napistim
life at the mouth of the rivers:
"then sleep: six days and seven nights, ina birid buridisu, rittu kima
imbari inappus elisu, "while it stormed
unceasingly and rittu like a
hurricane blew upon him. "
Is the subsequent ritual a BUR.RU.DA?
Thus Isaiah's connecting the moselim of
expected Assyrian hail and overwhelming flood
opens an interesting
group of incantations.
Apart from fifing or whistling, the
two pre-eminent folk-rituals
for rain-making or storm producing are
fire-kindling or throwing, and
water-throwing. They are often
combined as in the contest of Elijah
and the prophets of Baal; the identical procedure
found in some
Negro and Moorish tribes today. The fire-throw
originates in the
observation that as a storm gathers a sudden
downpour of rain
follows nearby flashes of lightning. Hence Ecclesiasticus 43:13–14:
96 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES
"Thou
sendest forth the lightnings
of thy judgment: they open the
treasuries: and clouds fly forth as fowls." So
pagan Arabs kindled
fires on mountains, or tied firebrands to cattle's
tails and drove them
bellowing up the mountains to unlock the stores of
rain (Leeder,
Desert Gateway, p. 258). In the
Zend-Avesta fires bring rain; a
Persian
girl of today will circle the family oven seven times that
the fire may grant rain; fire-kindling and
fire-throwing ceremonies
to bring a storm or rain are familiar throughout
South and East
Kay,
Travels and Researches in Caffraria, pp. 181–83; Bentley,
Pioneering
on the
Religious System of the Amazulus, pp. 376, 405; Livingstone, Zambesi
Expedition, pp. 22, 26, 231;
Cameron, Across
The Essential Kaffir, pp. 108, 115, 122,
123; Isaacs, Travels and Adven-
tures in East Africa, I, 119; Stigand, To
out witchcraft, and the use of magic images for
hurtful ends, per-
mitted their use for banishing
fog, hail, storms, etc.1 Observe
that
Ezekiel
is particularly disturbed at his reputation as a memassel
mesalim when called upon to
sprinkle fire toward the forests of the
Negeb, 20:46 (cf. Jer.
21:14), though his career began with the
vision of one called upon to take coals of fire from
the cherubim altar
and sprinkle them over the doomed city, 10:2, 6, 7
(cf. 13:11 f.).
The
populace might take such ritualist-preacher for a mesugga or
lunatic: such ranting dervish as was in mind in Prov. 26–18, "Like a
self-frenzied flinger of firebrands,
arrows and Death—so is he that
deceiveth his neighbor and saith, Am I not in sport?" It is fair to
ask if late editors have not confused ritual
traditions in Exod.,
chap.
9, where they get a plague of lice from the furnace ashes or
coals thrown at the sky, when the subsequent hail and
thunderstorm
is the normal expectation in such ritual. With the
notion of store-
houses of rain and hail, and the fire masal to open
them, compare
Job
38:22–23, cited above, "Hail and snow are stored for the time of
affliction; for the day of battle and war."
The "covenant
with Death and agreement with Sheol" in Isa.,
chap.
28, is specifically connected with raising or averting
a hailstorm.
1 Lea, History of the Inquisition, III, 430.
THE HEBREW "MASAL" 97
Everyone
thinks himself properly "kippered"; but "your covenant
with Death shall be ‘kippered’ away, and your
agreement with Sheol
shall not stand"; "and the hail shall sweep
away your refuge of lies";
"when the overflowing flood passeth
through, ye shall be trodden
down by it," etc. (28:17–18). Yahweh is Lord of
Death and Sheol.
Isaiah
calls these magicians, moselim,
"men of almond-magic":
luz, almond, largely used
in "hastening" ceremonies; and a familiar
foundation ceremony is probably cited in
"Stone! Chosen Stone!
Precious
Corner! Founded! Founded! The established (stone)
shall not haste away!" Jar-floods, such as cited
above, and reed
or almond magic cannot move it. We may ask if like
storm magic
is in mind in Isa.
32:19; compare the death-hail of Isa. 30:27–33;
the hail threats of Ezek. 13:11, 13; 38:22; Isa. 29:6; the historic
Egyptian
hail, Exod. 9:18, produced by the almond rod, Josh.
10:11,
and the jar-pouring of
thunderstorm. Would that we had
Samuel's invocation on this
occasion! For water-pouring or water-throwing
ceremonies to pro-
duce rain or call up a thunderstorm, compare Rae, The Country of
the Moors, p. 72; Kidd, The
Essential Kaffir, pp. 114–15; North
XLI,
335–36; XXV, 89; Krapf, Travels and Researches in
pp.
122, 139, 235–36; W. H. Anderson,
Exploratory Tour in
pp. 208–10;
helplessness of the superstitious
Arab during a thunderstorm,
Peters
observes that the Anazeh camel-drivers and guards
were "more
afraid of the fury of the elements than of the dangers
of war
Poor
Arabs, without tents, were lying like dead men on the ground.
An
enemy could have murdered the whole camp without a man
stirring,"
This unmistakable prominence of
hailing or sprinkling rituals
suggests notice of another Hebrew word to be
classed here. In the
fire-masal of Ezek. 20:45–49 (A.V.) nataf is the verb used of fire on
the
masal against you, and sigh a
sighing." The masal
closes, vs. 6,
Sprinkle not, 0 they
that sprinkle,
Not for these things
shall they sprinkle.
They shall not take away
shame.
98 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES
The
nataf
ritual will be utterly unavailing. A few verses farther on
(vs.
11) Micah scornfully says, "Any liar that announces I will
sprinkle to you (rain upon you) wine and strong
drink; verily, he is
the sprinkler for this people!" which compare
with Amos 9:13; Joel
3:
18, "the mountains shall drop (nataf) wine"; and with the kudurru
fragment in King, BBS, No. 37: "The tops of
the mountains in my
land Ea filled with vines; 30 ka of wine for one shekel of silver was the
price current in my land." Micah's liars were
promising like abun-
dance, using a magic and copious masal to insure fulfilment of the pre-
diction. The change of tense above suggests
their chant, "As I
drop, they shall drop." They and their audience
were on the level
of Shakespeare's Jack Cade,
decreeing "that the city sewer run
nothing but claret wine this first year of our
reign" (King Henry VI,
Part
II, Act IV, scene vi). Ezekiel uses the same word nataf in a
dripping and sighing masal, 21:1-7, which he explains
as portending
that all knees shall run water, and all souls faint,
and sigh. Amaziah
was familiar with such dripping and outpouring
ceremonies, and
scornfully sent word to Amos, "None of that
here!" Amos 7:16.
Amos
was instantly angered that he was supposed to employ such
devices.
The great prominence of sprinklings
and pourings in all manner
of ancient ritual is familiar enough. The Bit Rimki series in cunei-
form ritual is available for almost any occasion.
The preparatory
ceremony could be the same for opposite purposes;
the object cursed
or blessed would be the only difference. Recall
the "sprinkling
enemies with the poison of death" cited
above from Sargon; and com-
pare the familiar red heifer-ashes-cedar-hyssop
water for times of
death, in Num., chap. 19. It would suit an Assyrian masmasu or
Babylonian asipu perfectly for Sargon's
ends.
He would have
chanted, "As this heifer is cut to pieces,
this cedar hath been burned,
this hyssop hath poisoned, this water poured forth,
so may the enemy
be cut to pieces, poisoned, burned, swept away by
floods." In the
Palestinian
ritual case of Num., chap. 19, he would have chanted,
"So
may this edimmu
(family ghost) be removed, washed away,"
etc. Did Hebrew priests so chant? Black ark or
hurtful magic is
proscribed, for the masses, yet the priests have
solemn cursing as one
THE HEBREW "MASAL" 99
of their official duties,l
e.g., Num. 5:23; Deut. 27:13. In masal we
see a technical term and the general formula. The
red heifer ritual
probably originated in such solemn cursing and
burning as Mesha
used when he cut his son to pieces and burned him,
that the life
cutting to pieces might come upon
With the sprinkling or pouring wine
or death, indicated by the
passages above cited, compare Josephus'
description of the expulsion
of an evil spirit (
Solomon's mesalim. A magic root and a bowl
of water are the
equipment. When the water is upset or poured out,
the expulsion.
is complete, and the ghost cannot return—recalling
the warning to
David by the "wise woman," II Sam. 14:14, &quo