The Contributions of Recent Research on Levitical Ḥerem and Ḥerem in the Mesha Stela to a Definition of Ḥerem
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/hn.v11i2.169937Keywords:
Ḥerem, Mesha Stela, Leviticus, Moabite, Holy WarAbstract
The definition of the word ḥerem is difficult to determine not only because of the lack of a clear English translation but even more because of the diversity of ways that the word is used in the Old Testament. The word has often been defined, based on the warfare texts in Deuteronomy and Joshua, as “destroy.” However, this paper demonstrates that the way that the word is used in Leviticus and the Mesha Stela reveals the need for a broader definition to include such things as voluntarily donating items to God not by destroying them, but by giving them to the priesthood. The core of the definition of ḥerem is devoting something to God and not profiting from it, which could then have a variety of different practical outworkings.
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