PARONOMASIA IN THE PROPHECIES TO THE NATIONS

The Greek word "paronomasia" literally means: "beside-or alongside names or nouns" ? para = beside, onomasia = names, namely the various techniques of noun-combinations. The term was, however, used in ancient rhetoric more narrowly to apply to the proximity of two words similar in sound and having a different meaning. It also had other applications.1 In this paper the term "paronomasia" applies to the use of words that have some similarity in sound-either having similar consonants or similar vowel sounds or both ? in the same clause. Usually, but not always, the similar sounding words have different meanings. By "prophecies to the nations " we mean only those prophecies to certain nations, which do not form an integral part of the book in which they ap pear. They are rather independent units that were attached to the prophetic books, apparently due to the concept that every great Jewish prophet was also sent to prophesy to the nations in the name of the Lord who is Master of the Universe. Most of these prophecies could be removed from the books in which they appear without impairing in any way the unity and continuity of the book. Exceptions to this definition are the prophecies of Obadia and Nahum who prophecy, in the main, to one nation each (Edom and Assyria), and the prophecies to that nation comprise the major part of these books ; The purpose of this paper is first to give a description of the main types of paronomasia in the prophecies to the nations, which have either an etymol ogical or a semantic basis, or are based merely on the similarity of sound between the combined words. The former may be classed as sense-parono masia, while the latter may be called sound-paronomasia. Secondly, the purpose of the various types of word-plays in the prophecies to the nations and their relation to paronomasia in the Old Testament in general will be discussed briefly. The Hebrew term for paronomasia is p?V by Van pwV which we first encounter in Bershit Rabbah 18,4. On Gen. 2:23 ? * V