Palestine Exploration Quarterly

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The Numeral Seventy in the Old Testament and

The Family of Jerubbaal, Arab, Panammuwa and
Athirat

F. C. Fensham

To cite this article: F. C. Fensham (1977) The Numeral Seventy in the Old Testament and The
Family of Jerubbaal, Arab, Panammuwa and Athirat, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 109:2,
113-115, DOI: 10.1179/peq.1977.109.2.113

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1977.109.2.113

Published online: 19 Jul 2013.

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 THE NUMERAL SEVENTY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
AND THE FAMILY OF jERUBBAAL, ARAB, PANAMMUWA
AND ATHIRAT
F. C. FENS HAM

The numeral seventy occurs fifty-two times independently in the Old Testament. It is used in
various spheres of meaning, viz. for palmtrees (Exod. IS. 27 and Num. 33. 9), for weights
(e.g. Exod. 38. 29, Num. 7), for a length measurement (Ezek. 41. 12), for a period of time (e.g.
Gen.s. 12, II.26,so.3,Ps.go. Io,Jer.2S. I2;2g. Io,Zech. 7.s),forcattleintendedasaholocaust
(2 Chr. 29. 32) and for people. We want to elaborate here on the occurrence of seventy for
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people. It is used for the descendants of Jacob (Exod. I. sand Deut. 10. 22), for the elders of
Israel (Exod. 24. I, Num. II, Ezek. 8. II), for submissive kings (Judg. I. 7), for men struck by
the Lord (I Sam. 6. Ig)l and for the sons or brothers of a Judge or a king. In one instance,
Ezra 8.7, the seventy male descendants of Elam are mentioned. In this case we have probably
an exact number of people as it is clear from other numbers used in this charter.2 The applica-
tion of seventy to the sons and brothers of a Judge or king can be summarized as follows:
it is used for the forty'sons and thirty grandsons of Abdon, riding on seventy asses (Judg.
12. 14); the other two occurrences are of special interest, viz. the seventy sons of Jerubbaal
(Judg. 8. 30), are described as murdered by Abimelech (Judg. 9. 5); in 2 Kgs. 10. 1-7 the plot
against the seventy sons of Ahab by Jehu is described as well as their actual murdering.
We want to draw attention to the following important occurrences in extra-biblical
material: in the first place the numeral seventy appears in Ugaritic Text SI, VI, 46 where it is
described how Baal prepares a festival for the inauguration of his house. He summons his
brothers to his house (~.l;t abh bbhth) and also the seventy children of Athirat (~~Jb~m bn alrt).3
What actually happened at the festival is not clear as a result of the broken state of the text.
In Text 62 the death of Baal is bewailed by Anat. She slaughters various kinds of animals as
a funeral offering, i.e., seventy wild-oxen (ttbb Jb~m rumm), seventy oxen, seventy sheep, etc.4
Although the numeral seventy is not precisely mentioned in Text 7I .I1. 49, it is important for
our discussion. Unfortunately this text is very broken at the beginning which makes any
interpretation tentative.5 In the previous lines a period of seven years and eight cycles is
mentioned. In a difficult part the text refers to the brothers and kinsmen of Baal as clad in
bloodstained garments. They come to Baal and find him in good health. The text runs as
follows: 'When the seventy seven brothers come to him, when the eighty eight kinsmen
reached him ... ' (kJb~t lJb~m abh ... wlmnt llmnym ... )6 The numbers seventy-seven and
eighty-eight are a poetic device. With such a broken and uncertain text various interpretations

1 H. J. Stoebe writes: 'An den Zahlen Hisst sich for a translation H. L. Ginsberg, ANET (1955), 134
erkennen, wie die Uberlieferungen zunachst noch and also Arvid Kapelrud, 'The number Seven in
fliessend sind.' (Das erste Buch Samuelis (1973), 153). Ugaritic Texts', VT, 28 (1968),495.
This is written because the numbers seventy and fifty 4 C. H. Gordon, UT, 177 and G. R. Driver, Canaanite
thousand stand awkwardly together in M.T. Some Myths and Legends (1956), 108 f.
follow LXX, like the Jerusalem Bible. I) Cf. Johannes C. de Moor, The Seasonal Pattern in the

2 Cf. the discussion of J. M. Myers, Ezra, Nehemiah Ugaritic lvfyth of Ba'lu (1971), 32 and for a discussion
(1965),68 fr. ofvarious viewscf. P.J. van Zijl, Baal (1972),260 fr.
3 Cf. C. H. Gordon, Ugarit Textbook (1965), 172 and 6 C. H. Gordon, UT, 181.

8
 114 PALESTINE EXPLORATION Q,UARTERLY

are possible. We follow Aisleitner's view,7 which agrees to a certain extent with that of Gordon. 8
This means that Baal's kinsmen are coming to him, and nothing more than that. Oldenburg
and Gray, however, interpret this text as referring to the killing of the sons of Athirat. 9 This is
built on slender arguments indeed, e.g. the reading ofymlH into a broken text, and by oversight
they have not noticed the difference in the number of Athirat's children, viz. seventy, and the
seventy-seven brothers mentioned here. The semantic field of seventy in Ugaritic is thus in the
published texts limited to the offspring of Athirat and to an offering.
An important witness to the use of seventy for the kinsmen of a king is the Aramaic
inscription on the statue of Panammuwa II of Sam'al in the second-half of the eighth century
B.C.10 We can gather from the text that Panammuwa has escaped from a coup in the palace of
his father in which his father, Bar~ur, was murdered, as well as seventy of his kinsmen ()by).
Panammuwa appealed to Tiglathpileser III of Assyria for assistance and probably, on account
of a vassal-agreement between the royal house of Sam'al and Assyria, Tiglathpileser stepped in
and with his assistance Panammuwa gained the throne.ll Unfortunately the text is not as clear
as we could wish.12 A few important words are unintelligible, but we may gather from the text
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that a son of Bar~ur13rebelled against him, killed him and seventy of his kinsmen (brothers)
(whrg J bh br~r whrg sb'y )by J bh). Panammuwa escaped from this razzia and later came back
with Assyrian assistance to wreak vengeance on the rebels. The seventy kinsmen killed by the
son ofBar~ur, were actually casualties ofa revolt in Sam'al.
In the Old Testament we have two comparable occurrences. InJudg. 9 the killing of the
seventy kinsmen of Abimelech is described. It is stated in verse 5 that Abimelech came to his
father's house in Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal on one stone
(wayyahdrog Jet-Jebayw blne-ylrub-ba(al sib(im 'is (al-'eben 'ebat). But one escaped, viz. Jotham, the
youngest son. We need not go into all the problems of the identification of Gideon with Jerub-
baal here.14 It is clear, however, that there was not the slightest doubt for the final editor of the
Abimelech story that Gideon is the same person as Jerubbaal. According to Boling the
murdering of seventy sons clearly marks the end of an era or dynasty.15 In this case in Judges
we may argue that Abimelech was aware of the fact that the sons of J erubbaal were ready to
start a dynasty. Although various scholars have held the opinion that the fable of Jotham is
not directed against a monarchy,l6 we have nothing in the Old Testament to prove that the
sons of Jerubbaal were thinking in the direction of a monarchy. We have, thus, only circum-
stantial evidence for the possibility of such an idea. Abimelech himself thought in this direction
and even established a city state. City states were in this period not a novelty in Syro-Palestine
and they were ruled by dynasties. 17
In 2 Kgs. 10. 1-7 the story of the killing of Ahab's offspring is sketched. After Jehu's
coup he wrote twice to the leaders of Samaria in order to exact submission from them. He

7 Cf. J. Aistleitner, Die mythologischen und kultischen should be regarded as subject of the verbs in line 3.
Texte aus Ras Schamra (1964), 56-7. Cf. Donner-R611ig,KAI, II, 225.
8 C. H. Gordon, Ugarit and Minoan Crete (1967), 93. 14 See, for example, the discussion of Herbert Haag,
9 Cf. U. Oldenburg, The Conflict between El and Ba' al 'Gideon-Jerubbaal-Abimelek', ZAW, 79 (1967),3°5-14
in Canaanite Religion (1969), 119 fr. andJ. Gray, I and II and W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel
Kings (1964),499. Gray erroneously refers to the seventy (1953), 112.
sons of Athirat, while in this text seventy-sevenbrothers 15 Cf. R. G. Boling,Judges (1975), 171.
are mentioned. 16 e.g. E. H. Maly, 'The Jotham Fable - Anti-
10 Cf. for the text Donner-R611ig, KAI, I (1962), Monarchial?' CEQ, 22 (1960),299-3°5 and B. Lindars,
39-40 and for a translation and interpretation, KAI, 'J otham's Fable - A new Form - Critical Analysis',
II (1964), 223 fr. JTS, 24 (1973), 355-66.
11 Cf. J. C. L. Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic 17 Cf. J. A. Soggin, 'Il regno di 'Abimelek in Sichem
Inscriptions, II (1975), 76-7. (Guidici 9) e Ie istituzioni della citta-stato siro-
12 Cf. Donner-R611ig,KAI, II, 225. palestinese nei secoli XV-XI avanti Cristo', Studi in
13 It is out of the question that the god, Haddad, onoredi Edoardo Volterra, VI (1973), 161-89.
 THE NUMERAL SEVENTY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 115

mentions to them the seventy sons of their master, Joram. They must put one of them on the
throne and fight against Jehu. The leaders were terrified when they received this letter. They
immediately professed their subservience to him. In the second letter Jehu asked for the heads
of the seventy sons. They must bring them to him to Jezreel. So the seventy men were slaughter-
ed and their heads brought to Jezreel. (wayyiqebu 'et-bene hammelek wayyisbiitu sib'zm 'zs). We need
not take the expression ule'ab'iib sib'im biinzm as a later gloss, because any descendant from Ahab
is to be regarded as his son, as is proved by the usage of ben in the Old Testament.I8 In this
case we have without doubt the killing of royal princes with the change over to a new dynasty.
It is thus clear from the examples from Shechem, Samaria and Sam'al that the princes
of the royal house were called 'seventy sons' or 'seventy brothers'. It is also clear that only
one of them could somehow lay claim to the throne of his father or his brother. With a coup
it is very important for the rebel to kill these princes and to destroy any possible legitimate
claim to the throne. Certain circumstantial similarities between the events at Shechem and
Sam'al are evident. In both cases the killing was done from the inner-circle of the seventy.
In the case of Sam'al it was done by a son of Bar~ur and at Ophrah by a son of Jerubbaal.
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Even the terminology is remarkably similar, e.g. the term for kill (hiirag) is the same as well as
the description of seventy as brothers (in Sam'al 'yby and Ophrah 'ebiiyw). In both cases one of
the seventy escaped. This points probably to a common conception of this kind of palace revolt.
In this case we cannot speak of a change of dynasty, but of an illegitimate seizure of the
throne.
The usage of seventy is of special interest. It is quite probably used as a kind of symbolic
figure, just like seven.19 With the usage of seven and seventy the ancient Semites tried to make
a difference between a smaller symbolic figure and a larger one. It is important to note that
seven and seventy are never interchanged. Seventy is not used by chance, but with a definite
pattern. The seventy descendants ofJ acob in Egypt, the seventy children of Athirat, the seventy
elders of Israel and the seventy royal descendants points to a larger group of people than seven
angels or seven sons of a father or mother. This is also the case with the seventy wild-oxen etc.
as a funeral offering for Baal and the seventy heads of cattle as holocaust for the Lord (2 Chr.
29. 32). It is not intended as an exact number or even an approximate figure (with the
exception of Ezra 8. 7).20 It is only a larger group of people taken as a whole.

18 So correctly Gray, op. cit., 499. seven in 'the Irra-epic' Bruno Meissner, Babylonien und
19 Cf. the discussion of M. H. Pope, IDB, IV (1962), Assyrien,II (1925), 186 ff.
294-5 and Kapelrud, op. cit., 494-9. Cf. for the usage of 20 Against Pope, op. cit., 295.