Ebook: Mourning Cry and Woe Oracle

This volume, part of the author's Harvard doctoral dissertation (the other part being a study of 'ašrê as blessing formula), makes an important contribution to our understanding of the use of hôy, "woe (to)", in the prophets. J. criticizes effectively the usual views of the word: that, paired with 'ašrê, it is a weakened form of curse (Mowinckel); that its origin is in tribal wisdom and that its function is mainly didactic (Gerstenberger and Wolff); that it is to be classed simply as a variant of the prophetic Gerichtswort (Westermann). He quite rightly insists on the funerary lament as the original Sitz im Leben of the prophetic hôy of vengeance.