Sound in Hebrew Poetry 249

and possibly of
D'JIÖM (2c) = 'truth' and 'true (men)'
ns" (9b) = 'calamity', 'deceit' and *to be strange'
ChV (8b) = *to conceal' and 'to be ignorant'.

In 5c 'our lips are our weapon' could be rendered idiomatically as

'our lips are a two-edged sword', since the punishment for double-
107
talk (breaking oaths, contracts, etc.) is amputation of the tongue.
Even in 2b, I D * *to complete, finish' may also evoke the meaning \o
108
avenge'. And there may be other double meanings which we are
unable to recognise, though they were evident to native speakers of
Hebrew.

For study
Jgs 14,14; Isa 22,2.17.18; 25,7; 27,7; 29,16; 32,1; 33,1; Jer 48,15;
Pss 4,6; 11,7; 27,3; 35,1; Prov 25,27.
Nah 1,2-3; Ps 25,3; Lam 2,16.
Mic 7,11; Qoh 7,1.
Hos 8,7; Job 5,21.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
(a) General
Brown, J. 'Eight Types of Puns', PMLA 71 (1956) 14-26.
Empson, W. Seven Types of Ambiguity (London, 1953, 3rd ed.).
Wimsatt, W.K. (Jr.) 'Verbal Style, Logical and Counterlogicar, PMLA 65
(1950) 5-20.
(b) Semitic
Bohl, M.T. 'Wortspiele im AT', JPOS 6 (1926) 196-212.
Casanowicz, IJvi. 'Paronomasia in the Old Testament', JBL 12 (1893) 105-
67.
—Paronomasia in the Old Testament (Boston, 1894).
Glück, J J . 'Paronomasia in Biblical Literature', Semitics 1 (1970) 50-78.
Guillaume, A. 'Paronomasia in the Old Testament', JSS 9 (1964) 282-90.
Peeters, L. 'Pour une interpretation du jeu de mots', Semitics 2 (1971-72)
127-42.
Payne, DJ?. 'Characteristic Word-Play in "Second Isaiah": A Reappraisal',
JSS 12 (1967) 207-29.

107. As prescribed in the Code of Hammurapi, § 192.

108. For this meaning cf. M.J. Dahood, T h e Root ID; in the Psalms', TS 14 (1953)
595-97; M. Tsevat,/! Study of the Language of the Biblical Psalms (Philadelphia, 1955)
80 n. 34; Gibson, CML 144 (Ug. gmr). For a similar study cf. P.D. Miller, 'Poetic
Ambiguity and Balance in Psalm XV, VT 29 (1979) 416-24.
250 Classical Hebrew Poetry

Sasson,JJVt. "Wordplay in the OT", IDBS (1976) 968-70, with bibliography.

Watson, W.G.E. 'An Example of Multiple Wordplay in Ugaritic', UP 12
(1980) 443-44.
(c) On homonymy
Barr, J. 'Did Isaiah know about Hebrew "root-meaning"?', ExpTIS (1964)
242.
—Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament (Oxford, 1968)
151-55 and index, 349.
Delcor, M. 'Homonymie et Interpretation dans l'ancien Testament', JSS 18
(1973) 40-54.
Diez Macho, A. 'La homonimia o paronomasia = al-muyanasa = lason nofel
'al lason', Sef 8 (1948) 203-321; 9 (1948) 269-309.
Held, M. 'Studies in Biblical Homonyms in the Light of Mtkadian.', JANES
3 (1970-71) 46-55.
Sawyer, J.F.A. 'Root-meanings in Hebrew', JSS 12 (1967) 37-50.