Rahab (Hastings' Dictionary)

A mythological and symbolical term meaning ' the raging monster,' ' the impetuous one,' which occurs 6 times in OT (RV). As a verb, 3m is found twice in Qal : Pr 63 ' importune thy friend' (.W 'make sure' [Toy remarks that 'importune is hardly strong enough ; beset, btxiege, assaii better express the inipetuusitv involved in the lleb. tenn '] ; LXX irttpoluvi -rbr (•:ut <r»u);' la S^ 'the child shall behave himself proudly" (Chevne, PB, 'the boy shall be insolent'; LXX Tpo(rxc^u vi T«.i.s>) ; and twice in Hiphil : Ca G^ ' tliine eyes have over- come me' (RVm 'make rae afraid' [so Budde, set^rn mlck in Sclirecken] ; AVm 'have puffed me up' ; Duhm, rerjcn mich auf [so Siegfried-Stade. errrgrn (fii'^chleehtlicfi)] ; LXX etviTr^.piufftcr fa ; but it is very doubtful whether these last three renderings are possible ; probably ' contuse ' or ' perturb' [Syr. vOOlJ |l is the meaning, see Driver, LOT^ 440 n.); Pa 1383 'Thou didst encourage me '(Driver, Par. P«<ii(cr, ' Thou niakest me proud ' ; LXX irc^viiiprru; /^i).— The noun 3.11 is used in Ps 9010 [only] 'their pride' (AV, following Kimchi, interprets the root here falsely in the sense of ' strength ' [so in Is 307 and Ps 13S"J ; L.XX T« wXtTov «iT4J» [by confusion with D3il), and the adjective 3.11 (in plur.) in Ps iOW (only) 'the proud' (LXX fjUtTXliTYlTCti), 1, The first occurrence of arri we shall examine is Job 9" 3ni 'itv snqv' vrnn iSN 3'e';-N^> ii'j.s' ; LXX B aurbi yap dTr^crrpajrrat 6pyr]f, vtt ain-ou ^Kdfx<p67}aav KTiT-q ri iiT oipaviv ; KV 'God will not withdraw his anger, the helpers of Rahab [m. 'or arroganctj, see Is 30' '] do [m. ' or did '] stoop under him ' ; AV '(If) God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers [m. ' Heb. helpers of pride or strength '] do stoop under him.' The meaning distinctly appears to be, ' God withdraws not his anger (till it has accomplished its purpose) ; even the helpers of R.ahab bowed [note the perf. <nn-^', referring to some definite occasion] under him ; how much less can I (Job) stand before him.' What now is the allu.sion ? There can be little doubt that it is to the mytliical conflict in which the Creator was said to have vanquished the supjiosed primeval dragon of the deep. This myth is most familiar to us in the Babylonian Creation-epos, where there is a very detailed account of the victory of Marduk over Tianiat (cf. t!-h6m, Gn 1") and her eleven ' helpers' (.see art. BABYLONIA in vol. i. p. 220'' f. ; Sayce, HCM 63 ff. ; Ball, Light from tJie East, 2ff.). From the use of Rahab for the raging sea monster (who appears, in certain forms of the myth current amongst the Jews, to have been thought of not as finally destroyed, but as imprisoned in the sea, and destined to be slain at last by Jahweh's sword, Is 27' ; cf. the Egyptian myth of the defeat of the serpent Apopi) the transition is easy to the appli- cation of the term to the sea itself. So in 2. Job 2(j''^, where, however, the same mythological allusion underlies the two parallel clauses, ' He quelleth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through Rahab'(3ni fr: '\T\y.2nyt c;n i':i 'ini?; LXX B t'lTxiJ' KaTiTtavaev t7]v BiXaaaav, ^iri<m)^p Si larpuTcii Tb K^ros) ; RV 'He stirreth up [m. 'oi stilleth '] the sea with his power, and by his under- standing he smiteth through Rahab' ; AV(wrongly) RAHAM KAIN 195 ' He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he sniitetli througli the proud ' [m. 'H>ih. pride']. Cf. I's 74', '». 3. Very similar is Is 61' I';? ri;;"'!? 3rn nzsr'^r. K'.i-nN niSn ; LXX B oi/ <ri> ef ij ^prjfjLoOaa $d\affffav, vSwp d^uaaov vXijOos ; RV art thou (sc. the arm of the LORD) not it that cut Kahab in pieces, that pierced the dragon ? ' ; AV ' art thou not it that liath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon?' The reference here appears to be to the destruction of the Egyptians, under the figure of a monster (see Sea JfoXSTEU), at the Red Sea (cf. v.'" 'art thou not it which dried up the sea, the waters of the ^eat deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over ? '). 4. One otlier parallel to this is Ps 89'" '" r"?" •■>•"!< zrn 7^nr ; LXA. <ri> ^aTreffwffas us Tpav/xarlav VTrtpTJ- iparov; AVand UV 'Thou hast broken Rahab [m. 'or Egypt '] in pieces, as one that is slain.' The mean- ing of this clause is interpreted by what follows, ' Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strengtli,' and this again by the preceding verse, 'Thou rulest the pride of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.' There may be a veiled allusion to Egypt here, as in Is 51', but such a conclusion is not necessary. 5. In our next example the epithet Eahah is applied to Egypt, Is 30' •"!<-;5 ]z) niy; pni "jjn Dns-! icy D.T 3rn niii; ; LXX A/7i>jrTiot iiAToia koX Ktvb. itptX^ffovffiv i/fMS' aTiyyitKov avroU 5ti fiaraia ij rapd- itXTjiris i)iu>i> airrri : RV ' for Egypt hclpeth in vain and to no purpose ; therefore liave I called her Rahab that sitteth still ' [lit. (Ges. S 141 c) ' Rahab, they are a sitting still ']. Driver {Isaiah ', ' Men of the Bible' series, p. 59 n.) takes Rahab as a poetical title expressing ' the idea of inflation and pride.' So Cheyne (Prophecies of Isaiah^, i. p. 172) speaks of it as expressing the ' boisterousness ' or ' arrogance ' of the Egyptians as a people ; he cites Pliny's description ot them as ' ventosa et insolcns natio.' Isaiali declares that the name Bahnb had better be changed to 67K'ie<A (' sitting still,' 'inaction'); Egypt is a blustering do-nothing, prompt with high-sounding promises, but utterly incapable of carrying these out. If this passage belongs to Isaiah, and if the MT be correct (but see Cheyne, SBOT, ' Isaiah ' ad loc, and Intro, to la. p. 253 ; Budde on Job 9" ; and Gunkel, Scliop- fung und Chaon, p. 39), it is probable that no mythological allusion underlies the passafre, but that n.Tj simply means ' boastfulness' thougli with allusion to liahab as a name of Egypt. 6. Either through the influence of this passage, or more prolmbly owing to a conception of Egypt as akin to the mythological sea monster, because lying ensconced amidst its rivers and canals (cf. Ezk 29^), Jialiab appears as a designation of Egypt in Ps 87 '??' 3Cn ■''5'¥ ; LXX inyriaOi^aoiULi, 'Paifi Kal Ba;3uXui'os ; AVand RV 'I will make mention of Rahab (RVm 'or Egi/pt ') and Babylon as those that know me.' Guiikfl {Schopf. u. Chaos, 40) finds an allusion to Rahab al.so in Ps 40° (» ' Happy is the man that maketh the Lor.D hb trust, and respecteth not the proud (rihablm).' LrrFRATnm.— The Comm, on the above cited Scripture pa«- MKeii, esp. Dlllmann, Davitlson, Budde, and Dutim on Jub, ])ill- mann, I>clitx8<-h. and Cheyne on Isaiah, und DtlitZHch and Duhm on Vsalma; Chcvne, Job and Solomon, p. 76 f., ' I^uiah ' \aSDOT, lO'Jf., riJ V.ai., 2nr,t., and his art. ' Dragon ' in linq/e. BibL ; Gunkel, Schop/ung und Chaog, pattim, esp. p. 30 (T. J. A. SKi.niK.