Bible Review

This is not an exact quotation. Professor Charlesworth clarified the language here for purposes of this article.

W. G. Lambert and Alan R. Millard, Atrahasis: the Babylonian Story of the Flood (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), pp. 66–67, 72–73.

Compare Mario Liverani’s remarks on the function of the Amorites in Israelite tradition, “The Amorites,” in Peoples of Old Testament Times, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973).

Note that the giant aboriginal inhabitants of Seir, Ammon and Gaza are also utterly annihilated, generally by Yahweh (Deuteronomy 2:12, 20–23). See also Deuteronomy 9:1–3; Amos 2:9.

2 Samuel 21:18–22 1 Chronicles 20:4–8.

Moses: Joshua 12:4–6, 13:12. Joshua: Joshua 11:21–22. Caleb: Joshua 15:14; Judges 1:20.

In 2 Samuel 21 it is a warrior named Elhanan who defeats Goliath. This story is more familiar to us in 1 Samuel 17, where David is Goliath’s opponent. This is an example of a story that “floats” in oral tradition from a lesser hero to a greater hero.

Some of my readings in this passage diverge from the traditional translations for textual and linguistic reasons. For a discussion of this passage, see Walther Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), pp. 168, 176.