למקורותיה של מסורת יום ה': הצעה חדשה

This paper suggests a new direction for understanding the origin of the prophetic tradition of the Day of Yahweh. The widespread Day of Yahweh tradition describes a destructive theophany involving cosmological catastrophes, a global war and a judgement of the nations. The paper presents numerous thematic, theological and phraseological links between the biblical Day of Yahweh and the Mesopotamian tradition of lamentations over cities and temples. The connections between the two traditions are demonstrated via a detailed typology, which enumerates multiple resemblances between the traditions. It includes the depiction of theophany, the destruction and its various agents, the cosmological anomalies involved in the catastrophe, and its impact in the natural and human realms. The comparative typology shows that the two traditions share very similar motifs and descriptions, both on the level of general profile and in terms of specific detail. Against this background, I suggest reinterpreting the Hebrew term yôm Yhwh itself in light of the Mesopo-tamian lament tradition. This term cannot be understood as a mere time marker, since in several prophecies yôm Yhwh is described as an active agent of destruction, which appears on earth, demolishes it, and annihilates its inhabitants. It is therefore suggested that the component yôm in the phrase yôm Yhwh is actually an ancient calque of the mythological agent of destruction known in the Mesopotamian lamentations as u4 in Sumerian and ūmu in Akkadian (literally: ‘day’; ‘storm’). u 4-ūmu is a mythologicalentity that simultaneously embodies both the mighty storm that rages on earth when the god appears and the time when the destructive the ophany occurs. I therefore suggest that the biblical tradition is dependent in one way or another upon the Mesopotamian one. The concluding section briefly discusses several implications of this suggestion, including (1) the problem of the time, place and nature of potential contact between the two traditions; (2) the issue of the theological meaning of the Day of Yahweh in light of the theology of Mesopotamian laments; (3) the identification of several novelties and modifications in the biblical tradition; and (4) anew appreciation of the relation between the Book of Lamentation and the Mesopotamian lament tradition in light of the discoveries presented in this paper.