The Good and Evil Serpent (116 page)

At this point one might conclude that the scribe of 1QIs
^a
did not know about the existence of a word tlQp. That would reflect poor methodology and confuse two questions:

1. “What is the text of Isaiah 34:15?” is not equivalent to
   
2. “Is there evidence that ‘arrow-snake’ is a biblical noun?”
   

We need also to ask, “Does the scribe of 1QIs
^a
ever employ the name under scrutiny?” In fact, the scribe of 1QIs
^a
knew the noun under investigation. At Isaiah 14:23 he wrote:

166	And I will make [it] 167 [Babylon] 168
	a possession of the arrow-snake.

The zayin is unmistakable in the handwriting. No one should expect orthographi-cally tIDp and be concerned about the lack of a
mater lectionis;
the noun is simply an example of the well-known, but poorly named,
scriptio defectiva.
¹⁶⁹
In fact, the Isaiah Scroll has a remnant of ancient orthography.
¹⁷⁰

In Isaiah 14:23 the MT has
, “hedgehog.” This is a very interesting reading, especially when one knows that
, “serpent,”
, “pit viper,” and
, “flying-serpent” appear only a few lines later, in Isaiah 14:29. Surely, it is wise to follow the lead of Kutscher, who stated long ago that the scribe of 1QIs
^a
“[W] as aware of the existence of both words in Isa, but he wrote them in the wrong places.”
¹⁷¹

In terms of primary data presently available, it seems wise to imagine that tIDp in biblical Hebrew denotes “arrow-snake.” There is evidence that proves this noun might well have been known to Isaiah and was certainly familiar to the gifted scribe who copied 1QIs
^a
. The preceding study of the Psalter raises the possibility that tIDp meant “arrow-snake” to a probability.
¹⁷²

12.	“Rahab”	Ps 89:11, Isa 51:9–11	N
		Job 9:13–14, 26:12–13	N

It is unlikely that
is merely a personification of the chaos of the sea, even though the verb, with the same radicals,
, means “to behave stormily (boisterously, arrogantly).”
¹⁷³
The Hebrew radicals
seem to denote “Rahab,” the name of a mythical sea monster, probably a serpent or dragon,
¹⁷⁴
slain by the Lord at creation.
¹⁷⁵
Thus, the verb may reflect the stormy attributes of a mythical sea monster.

The conception of what God did at creation, calming the waters, was mixed with a celebration of the divine intervention that parted the sea and allowed the Israelites to escape the Egyptians.
¹⁷⁶
Note especially Isaiah 51:9–10:

Awake, awake, put on strength,

O arm of Yahweh!

Awake as in the ancient days,

In the generations of old.

Are you not the arm that cut Rahab (
) apart,