Lajish

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Middle Bronze Age city gate of Tell el-Qāḍī (Tel-Dan National Park)

Laish Hebrew לַיִשׁ lajiš is a biblical place name. Lajisch is referred to in the Book of Judges as the old name of the Iron Age place Dan. According to extra-biblical sources, Lajish was the name of the archaeological site Tell el-Qāḍī in the Middle Bronze Age .

Surname

Lajisch means "lion". Place names derived from an animal name were more common in Palestine.

Layish in extra-biblical sources

Prohibition texts

In this text group some Palestinian place names in the 19th / 18th century BC are used. First mentioned. The condemnation texts "were intended to magically banish real or potential dangers against the pharaonic concept of cosmic harmony."

The form for the Berlin texts is as follows:

"[...] The ruler of [place name]: [personal name] and all the defeated who are with him, all Asians of [place name], their strongmen, their runners, their associations, their allies who rebel, conspire, will fight, who plan to fight and rebel, in this whole country [...] "

On one of these shards, the place name 3w-ś-ï , which was used by Thutmose III. has the form R ɔ -w-ï-ś3 and is named next to Hazor . The identification with Lajisch is considered safe, since the ancient Egyptian sound 3 corresponds to Semitic l or r . This is likely to be the archaeological site of Tell el-Qāḍī , today in the Tel Dan National Park in the north of the State of Israel .

Letter from Mari

An in Akkadian language in the 18th century BC The letter written in the 4th century BC states that King Zimri-Līm of Mari delivered tin to the cities of Muzunnim and Layašum, among others . These two places are to be found in north-west Syria between Aleppo and Ugarit . Layašum is not, as older research did, to be equated with Tell el-Qāḍī .

Tell el-Qāḍī in the Middle Bronze Age

In the Middle Bronze Age IIA (2000–1850 BC) the Tell was again populated more intensively and strongly fortified in the Middle Bronze Age IIB (1850–1700 BC). An earth wall, the core of which consisted of a stone embankment, surrounded the settlement. From the same time, mid-18th century BC. BC, the mighty gate is made of adobe bricks. (Width: 15.45 m, depth: 13.5 m, height: still 7 m). The entrance arch is 3.1 m high. Steps lead down to the city gate from inside and outside. This gate was only in use for a short time and was then purposely filled to prevent it from collapsing: hence the excellent state of preservation.

Due to the size of the walled area, the number of inhabitants can be estimated at around 3500 people. In connection with the fighting between Pharaoh Ahmose and the Hyksos , Lajish was destroyed in the Middle Bronze Age IIC.

Lajish in the Book of Judges

In Ri 18 it is told how the Danites , one of the twelve tribes of Israel , in search of a settlement area , attacked and destroyed the city of Lajisch, which lies in the area of Sidon , and founded their own city at this point, which they called Dan.

The basic narrative Ri 17-18 is a negative etiology of the cult in the city of Dan: The cult image there is of dubious origin and is looked after by an equally dubious Levite . The Danites also appear in a bad light. The way in which they bring the city of Lajish under their control is the opposite of a real spy and conquest narrative (cf. Chapter 2 of the Book of Joshua ), with which claims to property are legitimized and derived from YHWH . This is by no means an ancient material from pre-state times, but rather literature from the exilic-early post-exilic period, which is also confirmed by linguistic observations. "Their ridicule, their irony and their polemics are only possible and understandable in a certain literary-historical phase."

Verse Ri 18,7 contains a description of Lajish, although the text is difficult:

Hebrew text
(Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia) 		Translation of the
Zurich Bible 		Septuagint
(ed.Rahlfs / Hanhart) 		Translation of the
Septuagint German
- And the five men went and came to Laish, and they saw the people who lived there safely in the manner of the Sidonians, calm and carefree, and there was no one in the land to harm anyone who owned something illegally, and they were far from the Sidonians and had nothing to do with anyone. καὶ ἐπορεύθησαν οἱ πέντε ἄνδρες καὶ παρεγένοντο εἰς Λαισα · καὶ εἶδον τὸν λαὸν τὸν κατοικοῦντα ἐν αὐτῇ καθήμενον ἐν ἐλπίδι κατὰ τὴν σύγκρισιν τῶν Σιδωνίων, ἡσυχάζοντας ἐν ἐλπίδι καὶ μὴ δυναμένους λαλῆσαι ῥῆμα, ὅτι μακράν εἰσιν ἀπὸ Σιδῶνος, καὶ λόγος οὐκ ἦν αὐτοῖς μετὰ Συρίας. The five men left and came to Laisa. And they saw the people who dwelt in the (city). It stayed there trustingly in the manner of the Sidonians, they kept calm and could not speak a word (to anyone), because they were far from Sidon and had no contact with Syria.

The residents of Lajisch are presented in this text as completely harmless. The city is therefore easy prey, and the conquest, in the narrator's opinion, is not a particular act of glory for the Danites. The narrator presents the residents of Laish as non-Israelites, but they are neither a danger nor a temptation. Yes, even more: the residents of Lajish live "in the manner of the Sidonians" in peace and security, as Israel promised, (according to the book of judges) realized in phases and hoped for the future. "The people of Laish live up to Israel's hopes."

literature

  • Uwe Becker : Judges and royalty: editorial history studies on the judges' book (= supplement to the journal for Old Testament science . Volume 192). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1990.
  • Aaron Burke: Walled Up To Heaven: The Evolution of Middle Bronze Age Fortification Strategies in the Levant. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2008. ( PDF )
  • Sarah Schulz: The appendices to the book of judges: An examination of the history of composition from Ri 17-21. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2016.
  • Manfred Weippert : Historical text book for the Old Testament (= floor plans for the Old Testament / Das Alte Testament Deutsch , supplementary series. Volume 10). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aaron Burke: Walled Up To Heaven , Winona Lake 2018, p. 250.
  2. ↑ Manfred Weippert: Historical text book on the Old Testament , Göttingen 2010, p. 34.
  3. ↑ Manfred Weippert: Historical text book on the Old Testament , Göttingen 2010, p. 35.
  4. ↑ a b Manfred Weippert: Historical text book on the Old Testament , Göttingen 2010, p. 35.
  5. ↑ Detlef Jericke: Lajisch , accessed on August 10, 2019.
  6. ↑ Manfred Weippert: Historical text book on the Old Testament , Göttingen 2010, p. 73, note 52.
  7. ^ Aaron Burke: Walled Up To Heaven , Winona Lake 2018, p. 254.
  8. ↑ Uwe Becker: Judges and Kings , Berlin / New York 1990, p. 254.
  9. ^ Text form A, probably around 200 BC Originated in Alexandria.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Kraus, Martin Karrer (Ed.): Septuagint German. The Greek Old Testament in German translation. German Bible Society, Stuttgart 2009, p. 285.
  11. ↑ Uwe Becker: Judges and Kings , Berlin / New York 1990, p. 237.
  12. ↑ Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher : Narrated worlds in the book of judges: Narratological aspects of a polyphonic discourse , Brill, Leiden 2012, p. 205.

Coordinates: 33 ° 14 ′ 52.5 ″  N , 35 ° 39 ′ 8 ″  E