A Little Taste

At the time of writing this page, the book Makhashabah: Patterns in Ruth has not yet been published. Since this blog will not begin in earnest until the book is published, this page provides a little taste of what is coming. Following is table showing a chiasm in 1Sam 1:21-25.

Hannah Not Going Yet Chiasm

Des	Element Specifications	Text – 1 Sam 1:21-24
Aᵅ	[offer], Lord, [sacrifice], [pay vow]	his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. (1:21)
Bᵅ	◐[Hannah go up], [child weaned], [bring him]	But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, (1:22)
Cᵅ	[stay] until [Hannah weaned him]	wait until you have weaned him; (1:22b-23)
D	‘may the Lord establish his word’	may the Lord establish his word
Cᵝ	[stay] until [Hannah weaned him]	So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. (1:8)
Bᵝ	◐[Hannah go up], [child weaned], [bring him]	And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, (1:9)
Aᵝ	[offer], Lord, [sacrifice], [pay vow]	along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, … the Lord … 25 Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli. (1:24-25)

The context for these two verses is that Hannah has been barren for many years. She vows that if God gives her a son, she will give the child to God. God answers her prayer, and she now has a baby boy.

The spec for element Aᵅ is [offer], Lord, [sacrifice], [pay vow]. The expressions of the specs in the Text column are rather straight forward and require no comment. The spec for Aᵝ is the same except that three components are preceded by plus signs (“+”) indicating expanded parallelism. The expressions of the specs are mostly indirect, as indicated by the lighter colored highlighting. The concept +[offer] is expressed by “three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine,” which are the items being offered. The word Lord is expressed directly as “the Lord.” The concept +[sacrifice] is expressed by the action “slaughtered the bull.” The final component +[pay vow] is expressed by “brought the child to Eli,” which is the substance of Hannah’s vow.

The first component of B is ◐[Hannah go up], which is marked as contrastive. In Bᵅ it is expressed in the negative as “Hannah did not go up.” In Bᵝ ◐[Hannah go up] is expressed in the affirmative, but it is intermixed with the third component [bring him] with both concepts being encapsulated in the clause “she took him up with her.” In Bᵅ [bring him] is expressed directly as “bring him.” The concept [child weaned] is expressed as “child is weaned” in Bᵅ and as “had weaned him” in Bᵝ.

Element C is fairly straightforward. The concept [stay] is expressed as “wait” in Cᵅ and as “remained” in Cᵝ. The component [Hannah] is expressed as “you” in Cᵅ and as “she” in Cᵝ. The phrase ‘weaned him’ appears as is in both Cᵅ and Cᵝ. In Cᵅ Elkanah instructs Hannah to do what she proposed, and in Cᵝ she follows his instructions.

Since D is a single element, the spec for it is the same as the text.